CASE 347 (2020)
This found footage movie states that it’s recovered from some CIA files that were collected through the Freedom of Information Act. “Case 347” refers to the file number or something. Sure, whatever. We start off with the famous Krista Allen(!) playing a psychiatric patient undergoing hypnosis therapy. She begins to have a bad UFO-abduction trip and that’s all we see of her. We proceed to join the main protagonists, who are filming a documentary-thesis with some woman who wants to find a psychological explanation for alien (AYLMAO) abductions, basically following in the footsteps of the late John Mack. They head over to Area 51 to find some crazy people to interview and end up at the house of the woman’s late father. Turns out he was into UFO abductions and disappeared! Shit!
The protagonists (the woman, her ex-boyfriend, and the camera guy) proceed to interview some people, and there’s lots of talking about UFOs and abductions. Some local guy threatens them and tells them to shove off, and in response they spend the night at White Springs, where the woman freaks out because she sees something in the dunes! Shit! Except that we don’t see anything ourselves. They decide to flee the desert and encounter a weird kid. They drive back to the dad’s house, where they read about “black eyed kids!” BEK’s, for those in the know. At that point they’re joined by some older guy, and he’s mostly there to talk and explain more things. They all end up at another house where weird things are happening, and…sigh…there’s more talking. A woman has a nosebleed and an unexplained miscarriage, and then we talk some more! Finally, at the end, the house starts shaking, there are bright lights, and we see an ALIUM on the stairs. Everyone is abducted, except for the protagonist woman, who ends up in a psychiatric hospital, just like Krista Allen!
This was bad and not worth watching. The actors were competent, but bland, which bodes poorly for the film because it’s mostly people talking about aspects of the UFO alien abduction mythos. Given that the most likely viewer of this film is already an afficionado of that genre, this is a strange narrative choice. I suspect that maybe the filmmakers didn’t know anything about UFO abductions to begin with, so they just dumped all of their research into the movie. Maybe they should have spent more time studying better movies so as to create something that was actually interesting or scary.
