WHO IS WHITLEY STRIEBER?
Whitley Strieber is a legendary figure in ufology. Strieber promoted his 1987 novel Communion as a true story about his encounters with alien beings. The best-selling book made international headlines and redefined pop culture’s understanding of UFOs and E.T.s.
Communion details Strieber’s 1985 abduction from a cabin in upstate New York. The author claims small almond-eyed beings crept into his bedroom one night and whisked him away.
Today, Strieber is one of the UFO community’s most divisive figures. After Communion shocked readers in the late ‘80s, Strieber documented further encounters with the visitors in a series of books – each one more “out there” than the last.
Is Strieber a truthteller struggling to wrap his mind around events that conventional science can’t explain? Or more like a carnival barker feasting on the UFO community’s ravenous hunger for extraordinary tales?
WHAT’S COVERED IN SHOCK DOCS: THE VISITORS?
Director Mark Marabella’s new documentary, Shock Docs: The Visitors, spotlights Strieber and his iconic story. Marabella examines the events in Communion through a modern-day lens. The author’s extraordinary claims carry added weight given the Pentagon’s admission of its UAP investigation programs.
The Visitors is a by-the-numbers talking head doc. It features one-on-one interviews with UFO investigators, experiencers, and Strieber himself. Marabella livens things up with some creepy abduction re-enactments ripped from Communion.
Get ready for lots of footage of Strieber laying frozen in bed while spider-fingered aliens creep around his bedroom. If you’re an easy scare, you may not want to watch The Visitors alone at night. These Communion re-enactments have legit horror movie vibes. When 10-year-old me watched these types of re-enactments on programs like Sightings and Unsolved Mysteries, I had to go to bed with a flashlight.
WHO IS FEATURED IN SHOCK DOCS: THE VISITORS?
Researchers Melissa Tittl and Jeff Belanger get the most screen time, aside from Strieber. They provide a chronological breakdown of Communion while detailing how this story fits into the world of ufology. They also do a bit of UFO hunting – more on that later.
The cast also includes other abductees/experiencers whose stories sound eerily similar to Strieber’s. Debbie Jordan Kauble’s life was profiled in Budd Hopkin’s classic book Intruders (adapted into a TV movie in 1992). Kauble recounts a traumatic abduction which involved an egg-shaped craft, missing time, and a circular landing mark scorched into her backyard. Kauble’s series of harrowing encounters deserve their own Shock Docs episode.
WHAT WORKS?
The way people think about UFOs has evolved in recent years. For the past 75 years, believers saw them as nuts-and-bolts crafts piloted by aliens from other planets. But today, a number of prominent researchers changed their tune. People like Jacques Vallée, Ross Coulthart, and Luis Elizondo speculate that these crafts are extradimensional, ultraterrestrial, or time-travelling vessels.
Strieber’s series of Communion novels touched on these “fringe” theories in the ‘90s when many UFO purists refused to get on board. The Visitors embraces the high strangeness aspects of alien encounters, which include the afterlife, spirituality, and precognition.
The doc doesn’t go super deep on these topics. Still, it offers enough juicy tidbits to open viewers’ minds to new possibilities. If you’re fascinated by the phenomena, The Visitors delivers some compelling details to broaden your perspective.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK?
The Visitors doesn’t pretend to be an objective investigation. It’s manipulative, has a trashy reality TV vibe, and plays loose with the facts. The doc states Strieber hasn’t shared this story in nearly 30 years, even though he discusses it at UFO conventions and on podcasts.
Marabella also seems hellbent on scaring viewers with real-life stories of alien invaders. The tone is as biased as a political campaign ad hit-piece. The doc says that aliens are definitely here, they’re committing horrible acts, and there’s nothing we can do about it except cower in fear.
My biggest issue with The Visitors is its bloated 90-minute running time. An ambitious storyteller could spin Strieber’s story off into a five-part docuseries. But The Visitors is not that series. It feels padded out and runs out of steam by the end.
The Visitor’s final segment turns into a full-on ghosthunters-style alien hunt at the scene of Strieber’s famous abduction. Tittl and Belanger use electronic devices to intercept alien communications. This all happens as Strieber spends the night in the room where the abduction happened. And of course, multiple cameras roll the whole time. I won’t spoil what unfolds, but I’m betting you can figure it out.
WHO IS THIS DOC FOR?
The Visitors is at its best when it’s most grounded. There’s a human being at the heart of this otherworldly story. And the film is never more captivating than when it looks at how normal people struggle when faced with an extraordinary phenomenon.
Whether or not you believe these abductions happened, these experiencers were inarguably traumatized. How does somebody wake up, eat their Cheerios, and go to work at Target believing aliens visited them last night? Unfortunately, this production is less interested in exploring “contacts” harrowing emotional toll than filling the doc with creepy abduction enactments.
If you’re interested in learning about psychological impact of these encounters, check out director Alan Stivelman’s incredible documentary, Witness of Another World. It’s a powerful examination of a credible abductee who spent a lifetime struggling to make sense of his childhood UFO encounter.
The Visitors doesn’t cover any new ground if you’ve already read Communion. It retreads the same material covered on podcasts and featured in other documentaries (and the 1989 feature film adaptation Communion). If you’ve never heard of Strieber then The Visitors is essential viewing. Communion is a seminal event in ufology and helped reshape how people discuss UFOs.
Whether you believe Strieber, his tale is crucial to putting a mainstream spotlight on UFOs and alien abductions. Communion earned itself a spot in the ufology hall of fame alongside the stories of Betty and Barney Hill, the 1952 Washington flyover, and the Phoenix lights.
This investigative doc isn’t journalism, but to be fair, it doesn’t claim to be. I enjoyed Shock Docs: The Visitors once I was able to sit back, relax, and appreciate it for what it is: reality TV junk food.
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