Brown Mountain - Alien Abduction

Just watched the movie and i thought it was pretty cool for an alien abduction movie. I can't understand why some of these people are giving it such bad reviews. If you don't like alien movies then don't watch it. I bet you could ask these same people giving bad reviews, what alien movies do they like and they prob can't mention any. @IndieDavid says in his pathetic review that the camera lasts for several days on one battery, well the movie only goes for one 1 day and 1 night and the child charges the camera at night. So Indiedavid didn't even watch the movie he just wants to turn people off a movie he has never even bothered to watch.. I am pretty harsh on all movies so 6/10 is pretty good review for me.

"Alien Abduction" is an example of a so-called 'found footage' movie. In other words, much, if not all the film is supposedly real and was filmed by victims of some sort of supernatural event. The best example was the hugely successful film The Blair Witch Project—a film that cost practically nothing to make and which earned many, many millions of dollars. It's odd, but I have seen very few such films, though I thought the Norwegian film "Trollhunter" was absolutely brilliant and is a real must-see.

When I looked through some of the reviews for this film on IMDb, I noticed that they were a mixed bag. Some really liked it but several didn't and complained that the genre is over-saturated and other films like "Alien Abduction" have already been made. I would agree with this sentiment, as although found footage films can be wonderful, after you've seen a couple, the well starts to run dry. Because of this, no matter how good Alien Abduction is, for many it's an example of too many and too late to care. If, however, you've not been exposed to these sorts of movies, then "Alien Abduction" is certainly worth your time.

The film is set around Brown Mountain in North Carolina—a place where many actual reports of glowing lights have been reported by many. Because of this Alien Abduction has an advantage because weird sightings have been reported in this area for years. Interestingly, I actually lived a couple hours from there and NEVER heard about such stories while I lived in North Carolina…but when I checked online, there were many, many reports. I am VERY dubious about all this, but apparently many people do believe aliens might be involved.

The story concerns a family that is going camping around Brown Mountain. They seem very ordinary in most ways—and this was a positive thing. Because they seemed just like other families in most ways, it made the supposed found footage more believable. The only oddity is that the youngest child supposedly was autistic and loved to film EVERYTHING—and that is supposedly how we got all this footage.

While the family has seen some weird lights, the enormity of the problem doesn't sink in until they happen upon about a dozen cars all abandoned— with doors open and belongings scattered everywhere. While searching through these vehicles, the men in the family are set upon by aliens; you know--the Roswell types you so often have seen in films. But, being a found footage film, you only catch tiny glimpses and it's all very hard to make out. What isn't hard to make out is that Dad disappears— taken by these creatures. Soon, the rest of the family is running for their lives and the aliens seem content at picking them off one at a time.

So is the film any good? Yes. I think it was constructed very well. I loved the music—it was probably the best thing about the film and really helped build the tension. Additionally, the acting was believable and I liked the footage seen at the very end of the video camera being tossed out of the spaceship (which, by the way, was also used at the beginning). All in all, a tense and exciting film in a glutted genre.

By the way, if you do watch, don't turn off the credits as you'll get to see what appear to be interviews with folks who have seen these strange lights at Brown Mountain—though, interestingly, none of these people have claimed to have seen aliens.

I'm going to start this with some constructive criticism: you know what failed here? The subject! After Grey Skies, Dark Skies, or to make more of a connection, Skinwalker Ranch the plot becomes somewhat used already and you are quite familiar with everything that's going on. It was the one thing that really managed to bug me, so, all in all, I had to focus on other aspects of the movie.

The acting was good, mostly believable, the characters depicted a normal family, the decisions taken during the movie were natural, the encountering scenes OK, so on a scale of one to ten, I labeled it with a 5! But I may have been a tad bit hard on it. Probably it will have a grade of a little over 5 in the end when the votes will come flushing.

Anyway, for found footage fans I will recommend it, for horror fans, again, you can do a lot worse than this, and for someone out there that is really bored, give this a try.

As I said from the title, the execution is the key. They did a good job, sad they decided to use this subject. Again!

"Alien Abduction" turned out to actually be better than I had anticipated it to be. Especially given that it is yet another of those awful 'found footage' movies. Found footage my... The movie starts out with "the following is actual leaked footage from the US AIRFORCE..." And I must admit that I was ready to get up and find something else to watch already when I saw that. Actual footage? Are you kidding me? So that is why there is nothing but actors portraying characters in the movie... It just doesn't get more ridiculous than that.

But I hung around and gave the movie a chance. For a 'found footage' movie, then "Alien Abduction" wasn't all that bad. The storyline and the thrills were what kept the movie afloat and it made it bearable to witness the hand-held camera point of view.

The story is about the Morris family who venture into the Brown Mountains for a camping and hiking trip, when they witness a strange light phenomena in the sky and then suddenly find themselves running for their lives as strange creatures are stalking them and an eerie light seems to track their every movement. But being in the mountains, there is no one to call for help and very few places to go.

The acting in the movie was alright, and people did seem to bring a certain amount paranoia into their acting, which really worked out nicely.

"Alien Abduction" is good enough entertaining for a single watching, especially if you have any kind of interest in extraterrestrials and UFOs.

I had to give it a 5 out of 10 because it is the best hand-held video-cam movie I've seen yet. The characters seem real, and likable, and the performances are pretty good. This beats the daylights out of Cloverfield and every other "found" video I've seen. There are actually some aliens in this one and the effects are fairly well done. The video quality is also the best I've seen so far. Even though the scenario has been used all too often, this one has, all I've seen so far, beat hands down. Is it a great movie? No. Is it a good one? No. But it is fair. It is entertaining and, if you like the found video types, it is worth a look.