Alien Abduction is a found footage movie, which is my weakness. I always grade movies from that genre on a curve. For a found footage film, Alien Abduction is fairly standard with outstanding moments, but if you are not already a fan of that genre, I would not recommend it. I am also a fan of fake documentaries, and interview clips of the real life phenomenon, the Brown Mountain Lights, which I did not know about before this film so it is an added bonus, are interspersed with the found footage to add credibility. I have no idea if the actual interviews were real or improvised.
Alien Abduction has a believable reason for a person to keep filming regardless of the circumstance. The person behind the camera is an autistic child, and it helps him to relate to his environment. The basic premise is that his family goes on a camping trip, and everyone likes each other so when members begin to act uncharacteristically, the GPS stops working and surrounding wild life goes haywire, with a title like this one, there is not much suspense.
As a viewer, I did get invested and still wanted to watch Alien Abduction because unlike most protagonists in these types of films, the characters are not annoying, regularly act nobly and selflessly in crazy making circumstances. In a foreboding campfire ribbing session, the joke is that one only has to run faster than the person closest to the bear, but it is only a joke. Of course they do stupid things because otherwise there would not be a movie, but there is an idea that their stupidity is not entirely their fault. The aliens are compared to fishermen who are manipulating the environment and have the upper hand. It shares some common plot twists with Crowsnest, another found footage film without the aliens, but because this film does it better, I will sign a waiver.
Even though the film begins with the end, because the footage was confusing, although I guessed correctly what was happening, I uncharacteristically did not mind. What was unique about Alien Abduction’s approach to aliens was the way that people reacted when they actually faced them. It was unclear if it was a natural reaction to encountering an extraterrestrial or artificially induced. Either way, it worked. If you are particularly eagle-eyed, pay close attention to the entire tunnel scene. There are end credits scenes so definitely don’t turn off the movie prematurely even though by the end, you may be ready to call it quits because you can see where it was going.
Alien Abduction works because of the characters, but ultimately lacks suspense if you regularly watch movies. If you have some time on your hands and enjoy found footage film, definitely check it out, but not unless you have nothing better to do.