Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A typical family of American morons gathered together to celebrate a traditional American occasion. But in the midst of chance, some unannounced guests arrive, they are coming from far far away, from the alien land, just to "experiment on a terrestrial cow". Nothing more logical, right? We do not see at all the aliens but we should be afraid of them. Why? Because thousands of morons decided so in the last 100 of years. Except two famous productions signed Steven Spielberg, in most movies on the same subject, the aliens are ugly, bad, destructive, etc. Did somebody thought that all this actually reflect the evil and ugliness of the human race, the evil and ugliness of those who imagined, written and filmed all these stupid stories? Did somebody thought that the real aliens (because I really believe they exist...), they are like us, the human race (those mentally sane), and even we come from somewhere far far away in the outer space? Do we really need such s..t like this film and thousands others like this? I say a resounding NO!

Looking at the plot summary, I had hopes for this film. I'm a fan of the mockumentary horror sub-genre, and to find one about alien abduction, I thought this could be interesting viewing. Unfortunately, if you go in with the same hope for a frightening, clever horror/thriller, you will also be disappointed. The film starts with a family at thanksgiving, who experience strange happenings, which they initially attribute to an electrical storm. The start is very slow, and in my opinion, is filled with a very mundane, exceptionally poorly acted dialogue of the family and their background. Unfortunately, this is a running theme throughout the film, and the boring plot of the family and the characters overshadows any morsel of suspense and horror throughout the film. Actual activity is very few and far between, and any elements involving the aliens are distracting due to the obvious use of human actors in plastic masks - especially in the end scene where they appear to be wearing black rollnecks and jeans! There are many other scenes as well, which entirely detract from the atmosphere -such as when the mother runs out of the house in a panic, yet through the whole film never fails to spill a drop of her wine, let alone put the glass down for even a second.I think this could have been better if; 1. The actors were any good. Many a time, they was appallingly unbelievable and very obviously dictating from a script and failing to capture any resemblance of fear. There is a handful of instances where there are interviews with 'experts'. Again, the acting of these characters is abysmal and verging on bizarre when they decide a good character would be a British rock star in a 'cor blimey' accent dressed in a tiger print jacket. The mind boggles. 2. The writers actually contributed a script that enabled the viewer to empathise with the characters. As best they were an annoying irritant, where you clock-watched their experiences in the vain hope something bad actually happened to them. Bar one character who plays the boyfriend of one of the sisters, I would even go as far to say the viewer is left with no choice but to actively dislike the characters. In summary, I wouldn't waste an evening's viewing on this. It is a shame, as the concept and idea could have played out so much better with just a better cast, script and direction. For the horror/mockumentary style of film, there are far better examples out there more worthy of your time, even on a very modest budget with unknown actors. The producers really missed a trick with this one.

Caught this on Sky Sci Fi/Horror movie channel on night. A good movie for what it is really. But what slightly bugged me about it was that the acting was just like watching and episode of an American soap opera, the direction of the acting was going through also. A happy American family is portrayed on screen through the style a la Blair Witch (However didn't this come before Blair Witch?) Anyway, the problem is I don't know what people are saying that it looked REAL when this is obviously far from the truth. First off, the acting is not the type of acting you would expect to see at a thanksgiving dinner through a camcorder. The actors are behaving like it is a movie with awful clichés when it should be portrayed as REAL life acting especially if we are to assume this is actual footage of a real tape. The acting is mediocre at best when it comes to this movie. What the director/writers should have left out was the sudden interruptions they made during the movie having brief interviews with a cop, a rock star abductee, and a scientist giving their thoughts on the "Found" Footage. Pure Garbage in my opinion.However, having said all that, it didn't ruin the movie for me that much. It was in fact enjoyable. What made this movie great was the aliens outside the house and telepathically messing with the families minds, and causing them to suffer from nosebleeds and burns on their backs,and having all the electronics in the house go haywire and having the young girl only barely touching the keys on the piano, making the other family members think she is actually playing the piano, we the audience only notice this however through the camera. A few eerie scenes made me say "this is crazy" a few times, which I loved.Seeing this now, it reminded only a small bit of Paranormal Activity,set in a house giving it a kind of claustrophobic sense with bad s***t going down. However I wont compare it to it that much, this was obviously way low budget, and way back in 1998 especially. So I wont compare it to Paranormal Activity really except for the house setting through the camera. Overall, a decent movie. Just ignore those stupid actors in the "Interviews".

So i saw this when i was in elementary school.it was being aired on UPN at the time and my brother recorded it for me to make sure it was that scary and i would be able to watch it. he gave the pass but at the time i kinda wished he didn't. It scared the crap outta me!!!! Now i watch it at almost 23 and well it still has a scare to it.I liked it a lot no matter that i knew it was fake or not. I wish there could be some more alien movies like this. "The Fourth Kind" is very similar to this and a lot of people don't like that movie but i love it.After watching this i downloaded a lot of Alien abduction movies but none will compare to the feeling i had the 1st time i watched this.