MovieChat Forums > Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998) Discussion > THIS FILM WAS ON AN OLD EPISOIDE OF 'SIG...

THIS FILM WAS ON AN OLD EPISOIDE OF 'SIGHTINGS'

posted 19 years ago by crow_t_nelson
7 replies | jump to latest

My first experience with this film was on the old, syndicated version of 'SIGHTINGS' (before they were bought out by sci fi channel)...'SIGHTINGS' was
a paranormal type show that pretended to try to get to the bottom of all those weird psychic phenomina, alien abductions, bigfoot,lake monsters, and the like...some episodes were better than others, and some things more beleiveable than others, but this 1 hasta take the cake on the goofy meter (along with the episode on whether the 'Cottingly Faries' were real)....

There were scenes from the film, and they were discussing whether or not it was a hoax,but a little ways into the story, they revealed that a man had admitted to hoaxing the film, and they even showed a picture of (i guess)the kids who played the aliens with their masks off. What I remember after that is either ordinary people or 'experts',discussing whether or not the film was real...i think a couple people actually said the film was real, and this filmaker guy who admitted to hoaxing it was actually trying to cover up what actually happened....

Does anyone else remember seeing this episode of 'SIGHTINGS'? I swear to god they had this film on there as like a ten minute opening segment...is there like an episode guide for the show somewhere so maybe we can confirm this for good?

Kinda silly the way these people were behaving about the film, even when faced with evidence of its lack of authenticity...

[–] WritersBlock187 19 years ago

The film was shown in its entirety on UPN...I remember they showed the film, and like a week later, they reshowed it with extra footage that was discovered that had been badly damaged but otherwise repaired. Good movie since it scared the living crap outta me when I was little. UPN was cool back then

[–] Foofa05 19 years ago

If this is the movie I seen when I was little. they had us all believe it was real and it scared the *beep* outta me when I was a kid.

[–] indiesyndicate 19 years ago

Sorry, no one will remember the "Sightings" episode you spoke of because it doesn't exist. You're thinking of Fox Networks syndicated show "Encounters". And the footage you saw was from the filmmakers original version made in 1988, ten years before "Blair Witch", and it was this original version that "Alien Abduction" was based on - also by the same filmmaker. In addition, the filmmaker was not trying to "cover up" the hoax, because he did not make it to be a "hoax" -- as he said in his interview, he was just as shocked as everyone else that his movie was considered real. He only had $6,500 to make his first feature so he didn't try to make some wanna-be slick alien movie, but an original improvised shot-in-one-long-take mockumentory that felt like an actual home video of a family being abducted by aliens. Though I agree the remake suffered from the network imposing fake "Interviews" into the movie, it was still made and released one year before "Blair Witch" hit Sundance. Thanks for showing interest in my films, whether negative or positive.
Best,
Dean
Filmmaker

[–] CrazyJim2004 18 years ago

Yes, I was about to say the same thing. I have both versions on tape somewhere though I doubt I'll ever come across the "Encounters" ones. Both versions really fascinated and scared the hell out of me.

[–] k_bauer2442 18 years ago

I remember Sightings. I loved that show.

I never saw this on there, I too watched it on UPN when I was about 11 or 12 and got the crap scared out of me.

[–] joeyy-1 18 years ago

OMG yea I saw this also on UPN when I was about 11 or 12. Scared me and my brothers to death. Never really got to see the film again until just very recently. This film still gives me the creeps. I think its a classic though!

[–] 18 years ago

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