The McPherson Tape: Quicktake: Creepy, Lo-fi, Slow-Burn Horror
You can’t discuss Dean Alioto’s cult classic, The McPherson Tape, aka U.F.O. Abduction, without talking about the wild story surrounding it.
But first, some details about the movie.
The McPherson Tape Video Review
The McPherson Tape is a lean, mean found footage horror movie about an alien abduction. It’s also regarded as the OG found footage horror flick, arriving a decade before the genre’s defining film: The Blair Witch Project.
The story sees the Van Heese family get together to celebrate a child’s fifth birthday. With all due respect to the Van Heese family, they’re begging for the horror movie treatment. The family lives in an isolated forest area in the Connecticut mountains. So right off the bat, viewers know there’s no chance in hell things end well.
It’s the mid-eighties, and Michael (Dean Alioto) is infatuated with his new hand-held video camera. He won’t put the thing down and insists on recording every moment of the party. The entire film takes place from the camera’s perspective. That means viewers watch lots of grainy video, shakey compositions, and poorly lit shots.
When the power goes out, the Van Heese men go outside to check the breaker and glimpse a strange red light passing overhead and landing in the woods. The men go investigate and are shocked to discover a landed spacecraft and three alien beings.
The creatures spot the men – with those giant eyes, how could they not? The guys run home in terror, and the aliens follow. They lock the doors, close the windows, and load their guns, but their firepower may not be enough to stop a higher intelligence determined to get inside the house.
The McPherson Tape is a no-budget, indie flick, but its lo-fi vibe and deliberate pacing add to the haunting experience. It’s a true slow-burner where not much happens for most of the runtime, which adds to the feeling you’re watching a real home movie.
Some people find this type of pacing dull even though many of the best-found footage films use this structure. You wait, and you wait, and you wait as the plot slowly reveals itself, and the suspense builds to a crescendo.
As the narrative creeps forward inch by inch, it creates a mounting sense of dread. This works so well because in scary films, the thing lurking just out of frame is more terrifying than what we see on screen. Alioto forces viewers to lean into the experience, so when shit finally hits the fan, you’re already on the edge of your seat.
This slow-burn approach doesn’t work without compelling characters. And this is where most found footage films miss the mark. A decent found footage movie has to offer something to keep the audience invested while the story takes its time ratcheting up. The bad ones force viewers to endure dull or flat-out obnoxious characters before something exciting happens.
The McPherson Tape’s hook is that it legit feels like we’re watching real people in peril. So there aren’t any grand monologues or spectacular emotional arcs to break our suspension of disbelief. For the film to work, the performances can’t feel actor-y.
The cast engages in casual conversation that mostly sound natural. They’re by no means scene-stealing performances, but this is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We’re watching a family react to an extraordinary encounter in real-time. And viewers can’t help but project themselves and their own family into the same scenario.
The film’s premise works so well that to this day people claim it’s authentic footage. You read that right. Despite the filmmaker doing press admitting The McPherson Tape is fiction, people still believe it’s leaked evidence of a real-life alien encounter.
Here’s how this film ended up at the centre of an urban legend.
After Alioto completed The McPherson Tape, he sent it over to the distributor. Unfortunately, the distributor suffered a fire that destroyed the master copy and the film’s assets. Unknown to Alioto, a copy of this film somehow leaked and made its way to the black market.
The grainy videotape made the rounds in the UFO community (without title cards and credits), where people touted it as leaked evidence of real-life alien invaders. When the director learned of its existence, he came out and explained the film’s origin. To no one’s surprise, UFO believers weren’t having it and saw Alioto’s admission as part of a UFO disinformation campaign.
Given what’s going on today regarding vaccine misinformation, and the prevalent lies about voter fraud, it’s not hard to see why facts couldn’t sway McPherson Tape “truthers.”
Due to the film’s popularity, Dick Clark Productions swooped in to give Alioto a do-over. In 1998 Alioto remade the film for TV as Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County. Incident in Lake County has an actual budget ($1.5 million) and a recognizable star (Entourage’s Emmanuelle Chriqui).
As if the story surrounding the movie couldn’t get any stranger, I’ve got another juicy tidbit. The McPherson Tape is based on an alleged real-life UFO encounter.
The Kelly–Hopkinsville incident, also referred to as the Hopkinsville goblins case is one of the most famous encounters in UFO lore. The event took place on August 21, 1955, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, when the residents of a farmhouse and their guests reported being terrorized by a group of alien intruders.
The witnesses described seeing 3-foot beings with bat-like ears, long arms, sharp claws, and giant eyes lurking on the property. These goblin-like beings approached the home, standing on their porch and peeking through windows. The farmers shot at the creatures and reported hearing metallic pings as though their bullets struck metal. When police arrived on the scene, they found evidence of gunfire.
The McPherson Tape still holds up. Its fuzzy VHS aesthetic only adds to its creepy appeal. I can’t imagine how this movie would have affected me if I saw it way back in 1989.
The Blair Witch Project shocked audiences because they had never seen a found footage movie before. If Blair Witch dropped today, there’s no way it becomes a cultural phenomenon. I have no doubt The McPherson Tape would have blown my mind back in the day, but in 2021, it’s one of many solid found footage films.
Alioto didn’t have any template to follow, and he figured things out on the fly. He was the first director to step up to the found footage plate, and he smashed it out of the park. What this filmmaker attempted would make a remarkable story even if his movie didn’t hold up so well.
The McPherson Tape is a fun sci-fi thriller that holds a special place in horror movie history. If you don’t like modern-day found footage flicks, this movie isn’t for you unless you’re inspired by Alioto’s brilliant act of guerilla filmmaking.
On the other hand, if you enjoy found footage films, The McPherson Tape works better than most of the schlock littering the genre these days. That it clocks in at just over an hour helps too. This story is exactly as long as it needs to be – it’s all steak and no sizzle.
But if you’re one of those people with a Communion-induced alien abduction phobia, then The McPherson Tape is your worst nightmare come to life.
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