The McPherson Tape — The McPherson Tape(Blu Ray)

The McPherson Tape is the crude at times decidedly manic granddaddy of the modern found footage genre. It appeared a decade before The Blair Witch Project, and charts an alien spacecraft landing near a smallholding, and disturbing a family birthday party. The film managers to feel authentic, with the clearly tiny budget and limited effects used well- sure at points the overtalking script, and rapidly darting ‘n’ swirling camera work is a bit too much- but there’s no doubt this is way before it’s time, featuring some effective moments jarring terror and believable fear. Here we have a UK release of the picture via 101 Films, as part of the label's new AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) series- with the extras taking in the likes of directors’ commentary, a second 2017 directors cut of the film, and a few other extras.

The McPherson Tape (aka UFO Abduction, UFO File 77) was an SOV venture that was the first feature-length from writer/director Dean Alioto. The whole film was shot on tape and edited in the same way- so it certainly has a very 80’s family filmed video look & feel, which of course is both positive & negative- so when going into the film you certainly need to be aware of this.
 
The film is set in the Van Heese house, which is smallholding surrounded by woods. It focuses on one night when the family are gathered to have a birthday party for a five-year-old female family member. We kick off with a kitchen table chat between five or six folk- taking in several generations of the family. It’s very inane banter really, but this of course pulls you into the believability of the whole thing. Suddenly the power goes out, and there seems to be lights in the woods- so it’s up to three male teen/ twentyish male members of the family to go & check it out. They come across a landed UFO, with three greys outside- who seemingly spot the three, they rush back to the house & in time the aliens starting attacking the house. 
 
The film comes in at just one hour and six-minute mark- with the whole thing largely standing on the acting of those in the house, with fleeting glances of the greys. At times we get lots of over-talking, and panic- so as a result it does become a little dizzying/ difficult to follow at times, but of course, this adds to the authenticity of the whole thing. Along the way, we do certainly get the feeling of real fear/ panic, as well as some neat moments of jarring jumps & tangible feeling of eerier dread. The alien effects are kept low key/ rarely seen- and these are largely well placed, sure at times it feels like there could have been a few more- but I guess that could have destroyed their believability. On the whole, The McPherson Tape is certainly an important and ahead of its time film, sure it’s crude and at times a little muddied- but there is worth here, and it’s a good lo-fi take on when aliens invade filmmaking.
 
Moving onto this Blu Ray disc, and on the extras front we get a commentary track from director/ writer Dean Alioto- this is an interesting, down-to-earth, and largely ego-less director’s track. He moves from introducing the actors in the opening scene and talking about how the whole thing was largely improvised. He discusses how the film was captured on an 8MM stereo VHS camera, and it's budget was $65,00. He talks about the film's location, which was apparently in northern California. He chats about the reason for the overtalking elements, how they were initially criticised, though in recent years it’s been celebrated as ahead of its time. He talks about how the spaceship and aliens were created for just $750. Later on, he discusses how they tried to sell the film when it was first made, and how they were met with largely negative feedback. He points out interesting onscreen points, comments on certain scenes, and much more- so it’s a track well worth a play. Next, we have 2017 directors cut, which seems to tidy/ clean up the original film- though does take away some of the original lo-fi/ crude charm. We have 1989 premiere footage (2.31), ENCOUNTERS TV segment- which is a six-minute snippet of a news program, discussing how at one point in the ’80s the film was going around the UFO community, who believed it was real.  Lastly, there's a nearing forty-minute Q&A session from a few years back.
 
It's great to see this early and influential found footage getting a UK release- and if you have any interest in the genre, then this is a must. Going by 101 Films site, this how now sold out with them- but I’m guessing you’ll still be able to get hold of it elsewhere, though I wouldn’t hang around long!