Tagline: "We are not alone"
Director: Dean Alioto
Release Year: 1998
Runtime: 93 min
Streaming Platforms:
Plot Summary: 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.
Holidays:
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.