Incident in Lake County & Dark Skies: A Comparison

It's hard to find a good alien abduction horror movie. Alien invasion films are a dime a dozen, but a horror film about the classic case of otherworldly visitors breaking into your bedrooms at night and performing bizarre experiments on you against your will are surprisingly rare, despite how popular these types of stories have been for well over 50 years. I recently got the chance to check out Dark Skies, and was really impressed with both how spooky it was, and how accurately it portrayed the classic abduction story, even down to a lot of the creepy details that are often present in UFO folklore. It also heavily reminded me of an older alien abduction movie, commonly called Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.

Before I get onto the comparisons, I'd like to talk a little bit about Incident in Lake County because the behind-the-scenes is pretty interesting. Made for TV in 1998 it was presented as a true-life documentary, complete with fake experts assuring us how real it is. As a pre-Blair Witch found footage film that lacked any sort of disclaimers, it actually managed to convince a fair number of people that it was a legit film. To make matters even more confusing, it was actually based on a 1989 found footage video called The McPherson Tape, which is a title some showings of the remake uses. There are also a few different cuts of this movie. Some people are still convinced that the original 1989 version (The "real" version as it's sometimes referred to) is an authentic alien encounter. True to the stereotypes, these people believe that there is a conspiracy involved which is why the original version is so hard to find (apparently ignoring the fact that low budget late 80s found footage sci-fi horror films aren't exactly something you can walk into a Blockbuster and pick up) and there are so many different cuts and titles for the remake.

If people are going to base a conspiracy around a movie, you would probably think that would have to be a pretty good movie, unfortunately, that's not true. Incident in Lake County remarkable for being such an early found footage movie, for being so accurate to the alien abduction folklore, and for managing to trick so many people; but in 2013, with over a decade's worth of found footage horror under all of our belts, it's a pretty weak addition to the genre, even if it was one of the first. Bad acting and a poor random-screaming-to-actua-horror ratio are this movie's biggest flaws. That's not to say you shouldn't check it out if you're interested in either found footage or alien abduction horror, it's worth watching, if you happen to ever come across it, if just because it's something of a now-forgotten classic.

Dark Skies, on the other hand, I found to be very good. While it was an alien abduction horror, it had the tone of a classic horror movie, almost along the lines of a demonic possession movie. It wasn't so much jump-in-your-seat scary, as it was the sort of ominous creeping terror that comes with the territory. In a genre who's movies can be counted on your fingers, Dark Skies is a good film. If you're familiar with alien abduction stories, you'll find a competent psychological horror movie with nods to the folklore. If you come in expecting a horror movie with aliens, and being completely unfamiliar with alien abduction lore, you're going to leave disappointed and most likely confused.

So what does Dark Skies, a recent and competent horror movie, have to do with a made for TV late 90's hoax? A surprising number of things, actually! Of course, this is largely due to the fact that both of them are pulling heavily from the same pool of lore, but it's still interesting to see how the two movies use the same elements.

Mind control and the spooky kid

The most standout feature of both of these movies is the use of the horror trope of the spooky kid. In both of these movies it's hinted that the spooky kid is the result of some kind of alien mind control. Children have played a particularly spooky role in alien abduction lore, many abductees claim that they've been taken their whole lives, and, just like in Dark Skies, there are a number of accounts that involve creepy drawings done by children that supposedly depict their encounters with aliens.

Electrical interference and glitchy cameras

In the case of Incident in Lake County, this was quite possibly largely done to cover up some low budget space ships, but it does echo a very common part of UFO lore. Electronics are reported to malfunction in a variety of ways when in the presence of alien technology. In Dark Skies it was used to hint that something creepy was happening late at night in their home, and in Incident in Lake County it was used in a rather effective way to show that the aliens were near, even when they were off camera.

Barely glimpsed aliens

In conjunction with malfunctioning camera equipment, the aliens in both movies were barely glimpsed and often shown as shadowy figures (I swear the second picture shows a glimps of an alien!). This is largely a cinematic decision to make something that is sometimes seen as typical and even laughable seem creepy. However, I feel that it also echos reports of alien encounters often ending in the contactee being unable to fully remember what it was they witnessed.

Implants

Implants are an incredibly common part of abduction lore, and was a feature in both movies. In Dark Skies members of the family found strange marks behind their ears, which according to an in-movie expert, was being used to control them. In Incident in Lake County they were found on the back of the neck and served no real purpose but to be a nod to the lore. Mysterious bumps under the skin and marks in a triangle shape either found behind the ear or on the back of the neck are iconic signs of alien abduction. Dark Skies has a double-dose of this, as the two sons are also both found to have strange markings all over their bodies, bruises on the youngest, and crop-circle like cuts on the eldest.

Nosebleeds

Ever wake up in the middle of the night with an unexplained nosebleed? Some people might tell  you that this is a sure fire sign that you've just been abducted by aliens, this is often explained a number of different ways, from high frequency energy used by the aliens to brain surgery via the nasal canal. Both of these movies feature inexplicable nosebleeds, in Dark Skies the husband is found standing in the yard in the middle of the night in a bizarre trance and blood starts gushing out of his nose, while in Incident in Lake County, everyone in the room starts to get a nose bleed at the exact moment.

While these movies both used a lot of the same elements from abduction lore, they went about it in very different ways. In Dark Skies these elements were used as a slow indication that something was wrong with the members of the family, and was shown in a way that was much more in line with hinting that these things were happening as the result of repeated abduction. In Incident in Lake County, which takes place over the span of only a couple hours in a single evening, it all just sort of happens one after another often without any real explanation as to why. Dark Skies succeeds as a horror movie with these elements because it works them into a more complex narrative, while Incident in Lake County is basically an hour and a half wink and a nudge to the late 90's UFOlogy community.

The real question here is why are there so few alien abduction horror movies? Horror movies featuring maniacs breaking into your house late at night to torment you are a staple of the genre, but what is it about the idea of someone breaking into your house night after night, tormenting you and then leaving you in the morning with no memory of what happened, only strange clues, so unappealing to horror audiences? Is the idea that alien abductions are too silly of a thing to be afraid of? As if dolls, clowns, and man-eating plants aren't.

When I first saw the trailer for Dark Skies I had high hopes of what that might mean for the genre. Perhaps it would be a hit and would inspire a number of other alien abduction movies. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, Dark Skies was met with incredibly mixed reviews. People simply aren't afraid of aliens if they aren't chasing you through the streets of New York.