Alien Abductions (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Published by Multimedia 2000

Features:

• None
  

Rating: NR, suitable for audiences 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Watch Fire in the Sky instead.

Since before Mulder whined in obsessive frenzy about his missing sister, people have been looking to the sky, fearful that some strange light was going to snatch them out of their trailer park and funny little grey men were going to perform strange experiments on them. For some reason, every single experiment this advanced civilization can think to perform involves an anal probe, but that's neither here nor there for the moment. The point is, stories about alien abduction have been around for quite some time. So with all this history, one would expect a documentary on the subject to have lots and lots of material to draw from in order to tell its story.

Despite the validity of such expectations, Alien Abductions is quite the lame attempt. Consisting of nothing more than a trio of sit-down interviews with people that claim to have been abducted (or have performed medical procedures upon abductees), the designation "documentary" is probably a bit strong. No attempt is made to present corrobarating evidence. No discussion is provided on the history of such abduction tales, from their beginnings in the mid-20th century to present incarnations. Nobody asks any tricky questions of the "victims" interviewed - everything they say is presented as fact, unchallenged by any scientific response or counter-point. For all I know, the three of them are all unrepentant LSD junkies that dreamed all of this up on a bender while lying in a culvert somewhere - we're not even given any kind of biographical sketch of the subjects.

So as a valid contribution to the available material on alien abduction, UFOs, whatever, this disc is a colossal failure. As a decent investigation into the three subjects' lives and experience, it fares little better, having no interest in the three individuals other than their narration of the abduction experience. I suppose that it might make decent fodder for a drinking game (take a shot every time someone says "anal probe" or "I saw a bright light"), but that might be pushing it. There are already ample X-Files drinking games available, though, and with syndication, you can find an episode playing almost any time after 4 PM (and if you're looking for a drinking game before 4 PM, one of two things should happen - get off the couch and go to class, or find an AA meeting).

Added to all this is the complete lack of special features, and in total, this one isn't worth the time or the effort. It couldn't have been that hard to go digging around for some historical information, and pay somebody to do a little voice-over work combined with some footage of investigations into such matters. I'm sure Whitley Streiber would have been more than happy to talk to somebody, since his pop culture currency was spent up years ago. But alas...not enough substance to justify adding this one to your DVD rack, even if you're the most die-hard believer around.