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The uncut video footage you are about to see contains the most important evidence yet made public regarding the UFO abduction phenomenon. This footage is from the North Woods UFO CASE 77.
On the evening of October 8, 1983, a young man videotaped his niece’s 5th birthday party. As the night’s strange occurrences took place he kept his camera running, recording the entire event”
Released originally as U.F.O. Abduction, The McPherson Tape is something of an oddity. It is a found footage-style sci-fi / horror movie from 1989, a full 10 years before The Blair Witch Project would rekindle (or some might argue - and rightly so - single-handedly ignite) interest in that particular subgenre.
According to writer / director Dean Alioto, The McPherson Tape was shot on video for around $6,500. Yet, despite its meager budget, it stands as one of the most intense, intriguing found footage movies I have seen, centered on a family that, thanks to the wonderful job of its cast, we come to care about.
October 8, 1983. The Vane Hesse clan has gathered at the remote mountain cottage of their recently widowed mother (Shirly McCalla) to celebrate the 5th birthday of young Michelle (Laura Tomas), daughter of oldest son Eric (Tommy Giavocchini) and his wife Jamie (Christine Staples). Also in attendance are Eric’s younger brothers, college student Jason (Patrick Kelley) and 16-year-old Michael (played by Alioto himself) as well as Jason’s girlfriend Renee (Stacey Shulman).
Michael, who just purchased a new handheld video camera, spends the evening videotaping the party (making Alioto not only the film’s writer / director and co-star, but also its cinematographer).
When the lights unexpectedly go out, the three brothers head to the garage to check on the fusebox, and while outside spot a bright red light flashing across the sky. The brothers rush into the woods to investigate, and are amazed to discover that a spaceship, harboring three aliens (played by young girls Ginny Kleker, Kay Parten, and Rose Schneider), has landed nearby!
When the aliens spot them, the three brothers dart back to the house to warn the rest of the family, kicking off a terrifying chain of events.
During one of the DVD commentaries for the [POV] Horror release of The McPherson Tape, it was mentioned that Dean Alioto is a big fan of Steven Spielberg, and how his E.T. was as much about a broken family as it was an alien visitor. In turn, It is the family at the center of Alioto’s 1989 movie, inspired, no doubt, by Spielberg’s classic, that brings us to the edge of our seats.
All of the performers do an amazing job of building that “family” chemistry. During the opening scenes, as they’re sitting around the table eating dinner, they are bickering with one another (both playfully and with a little passive-aggressiveness behind it) and constantly talking over each other. The relationships between the characters are not laid out at first, and it takes us a while to figure out who is who, but then why would they spoon-feed it to us? It’s supposed to be a family's home video! And director Alioto does a fine job of eventually bringing his audience up to speed.
Even after the film’s pivotal event, when the brothers go into the woods, then rush home in a panic after making a startling discovery, things eventually quiet down (for a while, it looks as if nothing will come of it) and they get back to the party. The tension does mount again, of course, and doesn’t let up until the shocking finale (which is also the only moment in the film that feels contrived).
Those who have a problem with shaky cam might find themselves nauseous during the forest scene with the brothers, but it’s what transpires both before and after it that makes The McPherson Tape a hidden gem, and a movie that fans of found footage horror will surely enjoy.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
With 1986’s SpaceCamp, a family adventure directed by Harry Winer, we know after seeing the trailer that the film’s entire premise is going to be outlandish, unlikely, and over-the-top.
And, yes, it is also a Hollywood movie.
Still, I went in wondering if I could overlook its ridiculous story, or if I’d instead be rolling my eyes throughout SpaceCamp.
Set at an actual facility in Huntsville, Alabama, the film is about five kids and their incredible experience during a summer at Space Camp. Wise-ass Kevin (Tate Donovan) never wanted to go to Space Camp in the first place, but agreed to do so after his dad bought him a new jeep. Kathryn (Lea Thompson) dreams of being the first female commander of a shuttle mission, and takes the training very seriously. As does Rudy (Larry B. Scott), who gets teased at school because he loves science. Tish (Kelly Preston) is your typical teenager with one exception: she has a photographic memory, and can remember everything she’s ever read; while 12-year-old Max (Joaquin Phoenix, billed here as “Leaf Phoenix”, making his big-screen debut) is a Star Wars afficionado who longs to experience space travel.
Their instructor is astronaut Andie Bergstrom (Kate Capshaw), who laments the fact that, unlike her husband, NASA specialist Zach (Tom Skerritt), she has never been to outer space.
Initially, the group has trouble working as a team, and young Max finds his only real friend is a malfunctioning robot named Jinx (voiced by Frank Welker), which takes everything it hears literally.
One night, after being chastised by Kevin, Max runs away crying, saying to himself he wishes he could live in space. Jinx overhears this, and the next day, when all five students and Andie board the Space Shuttle to experience a test firing of the rocket boosters, Jinx arranges it with the NASA computer to force an error that will result in Max and the others being launched into space!
Stuck in orbit with a group of frightened kids and cut off from NASA (because it was a test launch, long-range communications had not been installed), Andie must do her best to pilot the shuttle and bring everyone home safely.
Crazy, right?
Hard to swallow? Of course.
To make matters worse, SpaceCamp was also the victim of terrible timing. It was released to theaters less than six months after the 1986 Challenger tragedy, when that shuttle exploded soon after lift-off, killing everyone aboard (including school teacher / observer Christa McAuliffe). With accusations that the movie was trying to capitalize on the tragedy (it was actually written and shot well before the disaster), SpaceCamp proved a box-office flop.
But that was then. How does SpaceCamp hold up today?
Yeah, I did roll my eyes a few times, and the first half of the movie, devoted to building the characters and their relationship to one another, is as routine as they come. No surprise that the five kids, with their differing personalities, worked poorly together during their training, making mistakes and constantly bickering with one another (which begs the question: why was their team, and not one of the other half-dozen or so, chosen to sit in on the shuttle's firing test?).
Once in outer space, though, I forgot my initial “yeah, right” reaction to this amazing turn of events, and found myself actually getting into the movie! Writers Clifford Green and Casey T. Mitchell concoct a number of tense moments - from lack of oxygen to missing their window for re-entry - that keep the viewer biting their nails throughout. Yes, far-fetched things happen in space as well, but by that point I was invested, and wasn’t worrying about how preposterous it all seemed. Hell, there were times the tension was so unbearable I found myself talking to the screen!
All this, plus another rousing score by the great John Williams, made SpaceCamp a lot more fun than I ever expected.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
When a street fight with a rival gang ends in tragedy, Jeff Hannah (Adam Baldwin) decides enough is enough, and tells his best friend Cinco (Danny De La Paz), leader of the Cobras, that he’s leaving the gang for good.
A year passes, and Jeff has turned his life around. A star basketball player for Lincoln High, he’s also fallen in love with pretty classmate Sherry (Deborah Foreman). But the Cobras still run the school, shaking down kids for money and peddling drugs in the halls and bathrooms.
In an effort to rid his school of Cinco and the other Cobras, Principal Horner (Rene Auberjonois) works closely with Detective Moran (Ed Lauter) of the local precinct to arrange a police raid, in the hopes of catching the Cobras with enough drugs on them to put them away for good.
While running from the cops, Cinco asks his old pall Jeff to help him, but Jeff refuses. Arrested and dragged off to jail, an angry Cinco vows revenge on his old buddy. Jeff takes Cinco’s threats in stride, until Cinco and the other cobras are back on the streets, released due to “insufficient evidence”.
Cinco is as determined as ever to make an example of his former pal, and tells Jeff to meet him on school grounds at 3:15 that afternoon. Though he promised Sherry he wouldn’t fight anymore, Jeff has no choice but to stand up to Cinco, even if doing so may cost him his life.
Subtitled The Moment of Truth, 3:15 boasts good performances by both Baldwin (likable as the former gang thug turned jock) and Foreman (as the girl who loves him). Both are upstaged time and again, however, by De La Paz as the vindictive and violent Cinco. De La Paz may have less screen time than his co-stars, and occasionally walks a fine line between genuine intensity and over-the-top bravado (especially in the final act), but there’s no denying the movie is better when his Cinco is front and center.
3:15 also features a solid, rock-heavy soundtrack; and a few early action scenes, including the gang battle that causes the rift between Jeff and Cinco and the police raid on Lincoln High, get the audience’s adrenaline pumping right out of the gate.
But like High Noon before it, what makes 3:15 so good is the build-up to the inevitable showdown between the hero and villain, a final battle that everyone in school knows is coming. Try as he might to forget Cinco is out to get him, Jeff is reminded at damn near every turn, by damn near everybody in school, including former girlfriend (and Cinco’s new squeeze) Lora (Wendy Barry); his basketball teammates Chris (Scott McGinnis) and Jim (John Scott Clough); and Principal Horner himself, who figures, one way or another, this will end Cinco’s reign of terror at Lincoln High (if Jeff wins, Cinco loses his position of power. If he kills Jeff, Cinco will finally be locked up for good). Jeff even gets some friendly advice from Whisperer (a young Mario Van Peebles), leader of a rival school gang, who is looking to take over once Cinco and the Cobras are out.
Jeff has promised Sherry he will not fight, but as 3:15 pm draws closer, pretty much everyone, characters and audience alike, know it’s a promise he cannot keep. Nobody lets poor Jeff forget what will eventually go down, and by focusing so intently on his dilemma, we feel, even share his building concern, to the point that, when 3:15 finally rolls around, it’s almost a relief. The suspense is over.
And what does go down at 3:15 was worth all the hype leading up to it!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
