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Not many horror films truly scare me these days. But alien horror? Even the ones substandard to most send me into a fear frenzy. That’s why I’m taking a deep dive into the sub-genre.
Welcome to Aliens Scare Me. A look into alien horror films on a case by case basis.
This month we check out a first time watch of 2015’s found footage, part faux documentary, part true story horror movie, The Phoenix Incident.
What It’s About
A group of buddies who are thrill seeking end up stranded in the Phoenix desert when their car breaks down at the exact same time the “Phoenix Lights” incident was taking place. If you don’t know, the Phoenix Lights was a real life incident where large amounts of people witnessed the same lights resembling a large triangle shape hovering over the city.
Translation: a fuckin’ UFO, dude.
The Phoenix Incident takes this moment in time and gives it a Blair Witch spin with four buddies who witness the US Government shoot down one of these craft in the desert. They are then sequentially hunted by the aliens who come out of the crashed UFO.
The film plays out like a documentary taking place in current day. Actual documentary footage taken from the Phoenix Lights, mixed in with faux interviews with off the record officials and intelligence personnel; and, of course, the found footage of our missing and presumed dead group of dudes.
Why It’s Scary
What’s scary about The Phoenix Incident is the fact that it happened. No, four gentleman did not leave their Toshiba camera tapes behind with proof of aliens but did they really need to? The fact that an extremely large group of people witnessed a (possibly mile wide) UFO making no sound, just chilling above the city, is as frightening as the plots to Signs or Independence Day.
Now, the Government of course attempted to explain this as a training exercise with flares but the Governor at the time (who’s real life footage also makes an appearance in the movie) and owner of the world’s raddest name, Fife Symington III has since come out and said this could not have been the case. He says that flares would have never had the symmetrical and constant shape as these aircraft had. IT WAS UFOs, PEOPLE!
As far as the fictional part of the movie? Today’s Aliens Scare Me is unfortunately more of a These Aliens Could Have Scared The Living Shit Out of Me If They Looked Different. The main problem with the execution of otherwise amazing idea? The aliens themselves.
The lights in the sky are as daunting as they should be and the real world footage is haunting. There’s even some impressively imaginative fictional footage of our fighter jets going to battle with several UFOs. When the alien emerges from its craft, however? It feels like we’ve just been alien cat fished (again). I understand the desire to not go with full on typical green and grey aliens with big eyes. But holy shit, that would have been way scarier! What instead The Phoenix Incident goes with are what I can only describe as smaller versions of ED-209 from Robocop wearing the skin of a stink bug. Still impressive for what I imagine was a low budget, but ultimately disappointing.
The Phoenix Incident manages to recover from this from time to time with some frightening payoff shots as the aliens hunt our heroes first through the desert and then through a mostly abandoned cult complex. There are also some neat moments including the aliens hurling an entire ATV towards us or us watching as they rip a human being apart from the view of a fighter jet‘s radar.
Where It Lands
Though The Phoenix Incident isn’t really ever able to make this bat-shit crazy side story truly believable or all that frightening, they aren’t afraid to try. There’s consistently some wild shit happening on the screen and it’s hard not to at the very least be entertained. Does it come off as simultaneously hokey and over serious? Sure. Not to mention a really strange side plot involving a cult leader that never really goes anywhere. But in the end, there’s enough good times to be had. There’s also enough neat tie-ins to an underrated and freaky ass real life event for me to recommend this to other people just as fascinated and piss-your-pants scared of aliens as I am.
