Found Footage Abduction Not Alien Enough
Alien Abduction is a found footage thriller the subject matter of which should be self-explanatory. It follows a close-knit family camping in the Brown Mountains region of North Carolina who one night see a bunch of bizarre lights in the night sky and then spend the next two-plus days running madly for their lives, everything captured on the video camera being held by the autistic youngest son Riley Morris (Riley Polanski).
PHOTO: IFC Films
That’s it. There’s not a lot more to add. In many ways the film feels like an elongated version of the “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” segment from V/H/S 2 only instead of a group of partying youngsters being stalked by otherworldly invaders here we have two adults and three kids traveling together in a minivan. Unusual stuff happens, tense drama occurs and events escalate to unthinkable extremes always at the most inopportune of moments, all of it captured on Riley’s jittery camera first scream to last.
Problem is, as nicely as everything is handled, as confidently as director Matty Beckerman orchestrates the mayhem, there is a perfunctory over-familiarity to events that makes watching the film less than worthwhile. Robert Lewis’ script sadly isn’t chockfull of surprises, the supposed twists and turns Riley and his family encounter hardly ever raising the pulse in a discernible way. Even with the moderately novel idea of making the main protagonist autistic doesn’t change the game substantively enough to be consistently interesting, and other than giving a valid reason for someone to keep shooting all the chaos it isn’t like the movie uses him as well as it maybe could have.
PHOTO: IFC Films
Beckerman stages a few solid scenes, not the least of which is a set piece inside a dilapidated tunnel filled with abandoned cars and other mysteriously violent displeasures where the Morris family makes first contact with their wannabe abductors. It’s reminiscent of 28 Days Later but that doesn’t make the moment any less terrific, production design, cinematography and editing all coming together to help craft an exhilarating suspense sequence that culminates in the film’s one magnificent scare. There’s also some nice character stuff involving a Brown Mountain local (Jeff Bowser) laying out the situation for the eldest Morris boy (Corey Eid) in no uncertain terms, adding some semblance of texture to a movie that’s otherwise devoid of it.
Thing is nothing makes much an impact. The film feels more like a technical exercise than it does anything else so staying interested in what is going to happen to the Morris clan is sadly a minor chore. Alien Abduction doesn’t do a bad job of following the found footage playbook, and there are definite hints that Beckerman might be a director worth keeping an eye on, but overall the film is a forgettable waste of time, ultimately kidnapping 85 minutes of my time that I’ll never get back.
Film Rating: 2 (out of 4)
