‘The McPherson Tape’ aka ‘U.F.O Abduction’ (1989) - Dan Alioto.

 

‘I got it on tape!!!!! the whole goddamn thing!!!!’ (Michael Van Heese)

Independent filmmaker Dean Alioto’s groundbreaking S.O.V ‘The McPherson Tape’ aka ‘U.F.O Abduction’ (1989) is not only one of the earliest found footage movies but remains one of the more interesting iterations, which, frankly says much more about the integrity of the original than all the green-hued, cookie-cutter titles that so slavishly followed it! First isn’t always best, but in this case, perhaps it is! Even without my absurd predilection for low-budget homemade horror, 'The McPherson Tape' might prove equally intriguing to other sci-fi/home invasion fans.

‘The McPherson Tape’ is another vivid example of a film’s budgetary limitations greatly enhancing the work, giving the piece an ad hoc documentary feel that draws you intimately into the unfolding drama that would otherwise seem contrived in a more conventionally shot production. The bonus of utilizing this strikingly innovative approach was to make the absolutely preposterous idea of an alien home invasion seem more relatable; if such a mad, unprecedentedly bizarre event could happen to this family, it could quite feasibly happen to anybody!

Viewed today Alioto’s film readily engenders a deep-rooted, nervy sense of jeopardy, right from its entirely innocuous start you feel empathy for the soon-to-be beleaguered Van Heese clan as the inexplicable, sky-borne, intergalactic doom wends inexorably closer to the family home until Michael’s seamless hand-held video footage dispassionately captures their final, heart-wrenchingly desperate moments, and just like real life, all too many pertinent questions are left unanswered. There’s almost a weird Cassavetes-like verisimilitude to the day-to-day banalities of a child’s birthday party, all the minutia neatly captured on Michael’s (Dean Alioto) omnipresent video camera, the ceaseless, adolescent sniping of brothers Eric (Tommy Giavocchini) Jason (Patrick Kelley) belying the film’s progressively darker tonalities culminating in a fascinatingly frantic climax.

An eerie, remarkably prescient film that deserves its recent Blu-ray resurrection, Dean Alioto and his entirely splendid cast and crew are to be congratulated as ‘The McPherson Tape’ is a revelation, a creepy close encounter of the first found footage kind!