Alien Abduction (2014)

Directed by: Matty Beckerman
Country: USA

Movie Review: The Brown Mountain Lights phenomenon that can be observed in North Carolina, served as inspiration for “Alien Abduction”, the directorial debut feature from producer Matty Beckerman. It starts claiming that what we’re going to see is leaked footage from the US Air Force that found a camcorder from 11-year-old Riley who disappeared with his family when camping in that area. In a time where found-footage films are becoming tedious and banal, “Alien Abduction” doesn’t bring any creativity or novelty to the psychedelic digital effects and noises that follow the blurred and shaky camera. While the camera movements continues to annoy, the clichés used in the script are numerous, including the family lost on mountain roads in a foggy day, driving a car that is running out of gas, and threatened by mysterious creatures that we only have a glimpse, without having the possibility of asking for help. The concept is borrowed from a thousand other films and “Alien Abduction” becomes nothing else but a tedious exercise in the genre. A totally new approach and storytelling were needed to escape the cathartic panicking of the characters and all those gimmicks that the film relies and just don’t work anymore. I cannot praise the flat performances, which didn’t help to improve this thriller of being formulaic, fatiguing and extremely slavish in its execution. There are very few things to recommend in one of the most dismal abductions in the history of cinema. It was simply too vulgar to be worthy of our time.