The McPherson Tape is a real movie that has spawned a collection of urban legends. Officially, the film is named UFO Abduction and was created by Dean Alioto in 1989 for $6,500. The movie is one of the first examples of a found footage film and follows the story of a Connecticut family named the Van Heeses who are abducted by extraterrestrials. The movie was made to look like a genuine home video recording that was taken in 1983 and recovered years later.
The film starts out with a birthday party of a 5-year-old child at the Van Heeses house. After a brief period of time, the group experiences a power outage and bright flash of red light is seen. The men go outside to explore the area and find a plane crash over the hill. At the crash site, they witness a collection of extraterrestrials. The aliens scare the group and the men run back to the house in disbelief. Along the way, they use profanity and it becomes clear the movie is not scripted, but rather improvised. In many scenes the actors can be heard yelling over each other. For over an hour, the family attempts to fight off the creatures, but the movie ends abruptly with the aliens entering the house and abducting the Van Heeses. At one point in the film the men bring the body of one of the aliens into the house, but it soon disappears.
Throughout the movie, the actors do a great job showing terror and fear. Some have suggested the appearance of the aliens is quite convincing as they have long and slender limbs. However, others have complained about the unrealistic clothing on the creatures.It has become extremely hard to find a copy of UFO Abduction. Sections of the movie can be seen on the Internet, but the entire footage from start to end is not available. In 1998, a remake of the movie was created by Dean Alioto and aired on UPN. The footage is much less convincing and clearly scripted. Since its release, the footage has been labeled the McPherson Tape because it is said to show the actual abduction of the McPherson family.
It has been added to a collection of videos that claim to show human contact with aliens. Another example is the 5 Hour Video, which shows military personnel from the United States and China fighting underground aliens. Very little information is available on the 5 Hour Video, which is one reason it has not been featured.
