Intruders - Rapimenti alieni

INTRUDERS is a pretty good exploration of the alien abduction phenomenon, based on a book by real-life abductee Budd Hopkins. As a three hour TV movie it holds the attention throughout, boasting an excellent turn from Richard Crenna as a psychiatrist who gets drawn into the unusual reports from one of his patients and ends up leading a crusade against government cover-ups.

The only real negative thing about INTRUDERS is that it was made in the 1990s, where all such TV movies inevitably look cheap and ramshackle to modern audiences. Indeed, there's an often cheap and cheesy look and feel to the production, which saps the realism. But there are also many reasons to tune in, as this is a drama that narrowly predates THE X-FILES and handles an outlandish subject matter in a surprisingly mature way.

The film is also rather frightening for its time, focusing extensively on the abduction scenes; there are lots of nightmarish moments involving the "Greys" here, and the spooky atmosphere is understandable when you find out that Dan Curtis (proponent of many a 1970s TV horror flick) is the guy who directed it. Crenna was always an underrated actor and I can't help but feel this might be one of his greatest late stage performances.

This is one of the best stories based on true experiences from people all over the world about UFO's and abductions which is made into a movie. Good book from the initial author Budd Hopkins who is a specialist about the subject. It is in line with other movies like "A Fire In The Sky" from Travis Walton and "Communion" from the author Whitley Strieber which are also based on true stories. Luckily the filmmakers did have hired good actors. Richard Crenna and Mare Winningham are very persuasive. A must see for everyone who have interest into the subject. I would like to buy this film on DVD (widescreen if possible), but unfortunately it is still not available on DVD.

I watched this around 1995. I was a teen, it was very late in the night, I was in the country. The alien experimenting scenes were marked in my memory. I couldn't sleep for days and I still can see the scenes when I close my eyes, more than 20 years later.

This entertaining and informative adaptation of Budd Hopkins' book by the same name originally aired on CBS where Canada and The US watched in suspense. After seeing the first of two episodes, I just had to know what would happen in the next one. I have LOVED this movie ever since I saw the first fifteen minutes of it when I was twelve years old. Today it remains near the top of my favorite films/shows/whatever. Gray aliens, creepy abductions, UFOs, suspense, action; what's not to like.

My question and the point of this message is as follows

Why does the UK have this TV movie released on DVD, but Canada and the US, where the show aired, are still waiting for this title to be released?.

A petition may be needed.

Shawn

Definitely one of the better "UFO-epics" out there. BUT, the version released on DVD is much shorter compared to the version showed on TV, and that's a shame. One of the most prominent and important scenes, when Dr. Chase have found a circle of burned grass at Leslie's back yard and two neighbor children is sitting by and waiting "for the moon to come down again" is totally missing. There are also several more key scenes edited out. For example the scene where two government agents "visits" Dr. Chase and tell him not to waste his time on this "abduction" rubbish.

We can only hope for a proper DVD release in the future, with all material from the network version inserted again.

If you like this one, you should give "Fire In The Sky" (1993) a try.