The Mystery of THE MCPHERSON TAPE: America's First Found Footage Horror

ABOUT THE SHOW:
This show celebrates Ryan's love for film, games, art and entertainment through personal retrospective analysis that aims to explore what made them so good.

SOURCES:
Found Footage Critic interview with creator Dean Alioto (2016):

The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star by OPB (2019):

MUSIC:

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - The Setup Behind UFO Abduction (1989)
06:07 - The Pioneering Style That Made It Seem Real
08:55 - How The Story Keeps Your Attention

[RyanHollinger]

4 videos left until I close out 2022!! ... Curious to know what your favourite video or topic has been this year to help me plan for 2023!

[IknowIamkindagreat]

I'll tell you this. As a former VHS horror collector, getting a VHS copy of this with no context was legit terrifying to me at the time.

[HawkTeevs]

This movie is a prime example of why I love the found footage genre. A claustrophobic atmosphere and shaky camera can turn something that would have been goofy into something truly unsettling and/or terrifying.

[RoseKoneko]

I won’t lie, the grandmother reminded me of my grandma in that moment of “oh no! My house will get filthy!” Hey Ryan, could you cover The Orphanage. I watch it every year, and it makes me cry each time. I can’t hear someone count in Spanish without wincing a little. Even knowing what is actually going on doesn’t make the ghost children less terrifying and tragic.

[sleepyazathoth]

Here in Chile a whole generation of 90's kids (me included) got traumatized by this movie, a tv channel (not cable) played this movie every year, and I remember talking with my classmates about it, it became a cult movie, everyone thought it was rial.

[Sharkfreak]

I was huge into ufos in the early 2000s, and it was impossible to find information on this. Thought it might be real for the longest time.

[DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose]

Any time Ryan does a Found Footage review, it takes me back to when I'd frequent a Found Footage-dedicated review website made by a UK creator known simply as "Chris." (It was literally just called "Top Found Footage Films;" anyone else here know of it besides me?) He had an enormous collection of FF films ranging from the popular to the self-funded to the obscure, many of which were sent to him by fans, and it got me to appreciate the genre a lot more (as well as first encouraging me to become my *own* movie critic). I'd visited there a lot in high school, and I myself even encouraged him to review The Bay at one point (to which I got a shoutout for). Sadly, I can no longer find it, so I wonder if it's been deleted or defunct in recent years, but having Ryan do all these Found Footage videos almost helps keep the spirit of that old site alive. 😌✨

[iguanaboi]

This movie was one of the first to genuinely get under my skin, because of how accurate it felt to experiences I've had (the whole family video part, not the Alien part).

[_gorezone_]

I think what adds the most to the realism of the movie is the fact that the characters all seem to talk over one another, you know like how people actually do in real life. That really makes it feel like it wasn't scripted.

[ethanveda]

I'm not gonna lie, when it comes to silent openings to a film from the 70's, 80's and 90's like this one has, I get genuinely terrified which adds to the fear for me. There's something off putting about staticy, silent opening credits. And that ending where the camera was just still, made it even more uneasy for me than when the dude was just holding and shaking the camera. There was some sort of comfort when he was holding it but when he set it down, I knew something big was gonna happen.

Also, I like how people thought this film was real yet, in the credits it admits it was fictional. At least the version I watched on the Pluto TV app anyway.

Keep up the good work, Ryan!

[justyouraveragemutantblood]

It not nessissary fear but the idea of a happy moment turning into something horrific is something that really upsets me personally. I’m doing better now but it used to be that set ups like this especially stuff where a young child is excited made me actually cry.

[lizardgod]

The thing I was really impressed by in the Mcpherson tape was just how good the acting is for the most part. Before the aliens showed up it really felt like real home video of a family birthday.

[WhaleManMan]

I remember seeing this whole movie on YouTube and the description said it was real, so I was like "damn, can't believe this happened."

[ActualKit]

I actually watched this for my Halloween film marathon and thought, "ah, this seems like the kind of thing Ryan would cover."

Admittedly, I was a bit exhausted when watching it since halfway through October I became tired of watching a film every night, but I picked this because it was only an hour. With its pacing, at times it feels longer, but I was impressed with how realistic the home video angle felt.

[JAMJR]

I believe the remake was titled Incident at Lake County, at least that is what I remember it being labeled as many years ago. The remake is infamous for the TV network (I think it was them and not the director) duping actual UFOlogists into doing interviews for the film under the premise that it was real. (Later releases removed the interviews IIRC). The funny thing is, the original also duped UFOlogists, because I distinctly remember an episode of the show "Encounters" covering this version, complete with at least one "expert" explaining that the eyes of the alien mask sinking in was "what witnesses describe happening to dead aliens" or something like that.

The original was meant for wider release but I believe a fire destroyed most of the copies or something, so the complete version was though lost for years, IIRC. I think that might have been one of the reasons for the remake.

Also, I will never not believe that the remake heavily inspired multiple parts of the movie Signs.

[patrickmack]

I really like the idea of a found footage horror movie that looks an old vhs home video from the 90s/80s. With better acting, storytelling, and effects, I think it could have been a pretty decent nostalgia-themed sci-fi horror story.

[quietstories]

I watched the tv re-release as a kid (about age 8 i think) and as I was watching it I was convinced it was real (until the bad costumes at the end). I had such an intense phobia of alien abduction as a little kid and this almost made it even worse.... and then i watched 'Fire in the Sky' like 8 years later which reignited that fear XD

[CinemaMacabro]

I love this movie, I discovered it back in 2003 on an obscure torrent sight called Tracker 3 torrents that specialized in rare forgotten films. This movie scared me because of the family dynamic, it made the situation look genuine, Grandma was my favorite character, especially how she held them together playing games under candlelight, I loved this movie and it scared me

[damienturpin]

This is the first found footage film I ever watched when I were like ten years old and it shook me because I thought it were real, memories man!

[WhiteRhinoPSO]

Having seen both the 1989 and 1998 versions of The McPherson Tape, I can't help but prefer the latter.

I remember seeing the 1998 remake on TV, possibly during its initial broadcast. Having watched hundreds of documentaries on PBS, the idea that people might make a fake documentary never really registered on my 15-year-old brain. I sat staring at the screen, believing every second of it. Over a decade afterward, I was still checking behind the door before entering my bedroom each night to make sure there wasn't anyone - or anything - hiding behind it.

I still believe in the idea that UFOs and alien beings might be real, but the thought of personally encountering one of the proverbial "greys" is one of the most terrifying things I could ever imagine.