Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County

"We are not alone"

Director: Dean Alioto Year: 1998 Runtime: 93 min IMDb: ⭐ 7.4
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Synopsis

After a mysterious blackout, a son goes out to investigate and captures footage of actual aliens. When the aliens follow he and his brothers back to their home all hell breaks lose.

An opening narration presents the film as footage recovered from the home of the McPherson family, who disappeared in the Fall of 1997, interspersed with contributions from experts and officials linked to the case. Teenage Tommy McPherson films his family at Thanksgiving dinner. A power cut interrupts festivities; Tommy and his older brothers Kurt and Brian go outside to investigate. After finding the smouldering fuse box, they head into the woods to investigate a transformer which is throwing sparks. They find a strange object in a nearby field. As they watch from afar, two aliens exit the object and use a ray-gun on a cow. The three men are spotted. One of the aliens raises its weapon and burns Brian's hand. They run back to the house and try to convince their incredulous family to flee while there is still time. They see lights in the sky and a furtive figure outside a window, but the family refuses to believe the brothers' story until Tommy plays them the tape. Suddenly, a high-frequency screech incapacitates everyone but five-year-old Rosie. When it stops, Kurt plans to evacuate everyone in his truck only to find its battery has melted. Noises are heard from the roof and Tommy sees an alien entering an open attic window. Kurt leads the way up the stairs with his shotgun. Tommy takes the opportunity to go into his bedroom and change his soiled pants when he is ambushed by an alien. It puts him in a trance, investigates his camera, and slips away, leaving Tommy with no memory of the encounter. Tommy is awakened by the shouts of Kurt, who has trapped an alien in an adjacent room. They are greeted by a laser shot and Kurt responds with his shotgun. They retreat downstairs. A ball of light enters the house and puts Renee into a coma. Kurt and Brian go outside to try to swap out the truck battery in a final attempt to get the family to safety and take Renee to a hospital. Minutes later, gunshots are heard outside and the lights begin to flicker. Those who remain experience a series of vivid auditory and visual hallucinations to which Rosie seems to be immune. Tommy puts the camera down, and in a moment when she is left alone, Rosie removes the shells from the remaining shotgun. Later, everyone but Rosie feels a burning sensation on the backs of their necks where they discover triangle-shaped burns. The group becomes hysterical as more shots are heard. They go outside where Tommy discovers a couple of mangled shotguns, but not his brothers. Strange lights and two approaching figures appear in the woods. The family race back into the house and barricade themselves in. The camera is dropped and goes black. Tommy then gives a tearful testimonial and wonders if he will live to see tomorrow. He searches through all the rooms and suddenly comes face-to-face with an alien. Tommy drops the camera and stands frozen in a trance-like state as the tape stops. Alternate ending[edit] The family re-enters the house and, after the death of Renee, gather around the table to eat in order to keep up their strength and spirits. Rosie calmly walks offscreen, claiming she has something to attend to. Seconds later, aliens enter the house and place the family in a trance. An alien disables the camera as the family is seen following the aliens out of the house.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

an animal dies
spoiler The aliens kill cows
there's a dead animal
spoiler Cows, dead turkey on the table
someone is stalked
spoiler The family are stalked by aliens
there's addiction
spoiler The characters' mother has a drinking problem
alcohol abuse
spoiler The characters' mother has a drinking problem
someone struggles to breathe
Yes
someone has a seizure
Yes
a kid dies
spoiler Ambiguous: she goes along with the aliens at the end of the movie with the rest of the family.
a parent dies
spoiler A father died before the events of the movie
someone is kidnapped
spoiler The premise/implication is that the family gets abducted by aliens.
there are jump scares
Yes
someone is possessed
Yes
There's audio gore
Yes
someone wets/soils themselves
spoiler A character pees his pants
there's misophonia
spoiler Electronic/beeping sounds
there's flashing lights or images
Yes
shaky cam is used
Yes
the fourth wall is broken
spoiler If you consider documentary or documentary-style footage to be breaking the fourth wall, then yes. There are several scenes where the film is broken up by documentary-style interviews, and the speaker is facing and addressing the audience.
the black guy dies first
spoiler First, no, but the lone Black character in the movie is treated hostilely, and it is implied that he died or at least disappeared.
someone speaks hate speech
spoiler Racist dogwhistles
there are incestuous relationships
spoiler Not explicitly, but one character seems a little too protective of his sister.
the ending is sad
Yes
there's gun violence
Yes

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