ALIEN AUTOPSY - FACT OR FICTION (1995)

DIRECTED by Tom McGough

WRITTEN by Robert Kiviat & Tom Seligson

PRESENTED by Jonathan Frakes

BACKGROUND - In 1995 British entrepreneur Ray Santilli claimed to have been bequeathed film footage taken in 1945 showing the autopsy of a dead alien taken from the crashed UFO at Roswell.

This documentary looks into the footage, interviews eye witnesses who where there on that fateful day in Roswell and asks the question as to whether the footage is real or not...

OVERVIEW - Of course thirty years later we now know the answer to that question - it was all just one big fat hoax perpetrated by Santilli to make money for his film production company, but back then this was a big deal.

To understand this you've really got to cast your mind back to the bygone days of the mid 90's. Stoked by the popularity of the X-Files, interest in the paranormal (and UFO'S in particular) was at an all time high. Everywhere you looked there where posters claiming "I WANT TO BELIEVE", little grey bug eyed aliens peering out from posters, books and comics. The grey alien had become a massive pop cultural icon (bet they weren't expecting that to happen when they came from Alpha Centuri or wherever).

So it's understandable that once a short film is released claiming to show the real thing that people would be absolutely all over it. Naturally it didn't take long for an enterprising TV network to buy the rights to the film and incorporate a wider programme around it, guaranteed ratings gold.

It's not a bad attempt to make something definitive around the footage to be fair. Jonathan Frakes (Riker from Star Trek The Next Generation) is on presenting duties - he introduces the footage in a suitably portentous style, dramatically claiming that this could be the most important piece of film in human history, you can't really tell whether he actually believes this himself but hats off to him for selling the drama of it all the same.

We also get interviews with several eye witnesses who where there on that infamous day in Roswell (seeing as how these people all look to be middle aged I'm guessing they where probably kids when the alleged UFO crash to place). These interviews are probably in hindsight the most genuinely interesting part of the show (especially since we now know the autopsy footage was fake). One lady seems particularly freaked out by what happened, when she says how she was threatened as a young girl by some dodgy government agent types not to say anything lest her parents be "made to disappear" you can clearly see how genuinely haunted she seems to be. Obviously we'll never know what really happened that day but clearly SOMETHING unusual certainly did.

We then get to see the autopsy footage itself (or at least edited highlights - the full film was out to buy on VHS - Santilli really did have all bases covered), it's pretty much what you'd expect it to be like (more on that later) and it's difficult to see how anyone could have been fooled by it back in 1995 - it looks like what it is - an ambitious home movie.

We then get more experts analysing the film to see whether they think it's real or not. The most amusing part is when Hollywood special effects guru Stan Winston says that the alien looks better and more convincing than anything he'd be able to produce (this implying he thinks it's real), ok - the alien pretty decent for what it is but no way is it on a par with anything Stan Winston has produced. I wonder how much they paid him to say that....

Also dubious is where Ray Santilli is interviewed. You can just tell by the look on his face that it's all just one big joke that he's coining it in from. Americans would describe him as having a permanent "shit eating grin", he just comes over as the sort of London wide-boy conman who'd gladly sell his own grandmother for a profit. I'm sure that in a past life he was probably a used car or double glazing salesman.

SFX - Now we come to the actual footage itself. Like I said above, the alien looks ok for what it is but it's by no means particularly convincing - if anything he looks a bit rubbery.

I also think he looks a bit too human (there where rumours going round in '95 that the body wasn't an alien but was instead a deformed human corpse that had been bought from a medical school - it WASN'T !), I can  see why they didn't make him look too much like a stereotypical gray alien because then the fraud would have been exposed straight away, so I can see how they where going for some kind of more believable middle ground. It is what it is.

There's also some decent 80's style practical gore FX, which brings us neatly too...

SEX AND VIOLENCE

Yes believe it or not there's a hint of sex in this, although to be accurate it's more of a hint of sexual censorship than actual sex itself. Basically what this ranting mess means is that they actually censor the dead alien's genitals. You read that right - there's a big pixelated area where the alien's knob or plunge would be located. IT'S RIDICULOUS. ITS A FAKE ALIEN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD !!!!!! If you're that bothered about seeing an alien that you've made up's sexy bits then why include them in the first place. Besides all that IT'S AN ALIEN - it doesn't NEED genitals - aliens might reproduce via thier ears and give birth out of thier nostrils for all we know. All I can think is that this must be - HAS TO BE - another joke, let's face it - the whole thing's one big joke anyway so adding another one to the mix isn't going to make a big difference either way.

Obviously with this being an autopsy you've got to expect some blood and guts and in this regard the film doesn't disappoint. Our friendly neighbourhood ufonaut gets sliced and diced pretty comprehensively. The gore FX are pretty decent, I don't know how true it is but I read somewhere that they used offal for the alien's innards, if true then it's certainly effective, if it's not true then that makes the effects even more impressive - certainly it's the most convincing aspect of the entire thing.

RATING - How much you'll enjoy this wildly depends on your tolerance of two things A) Cheesy and sensationalist 90's American tabloid TV shows, and B) Elaborate hoaxes. If you detest either of those things with a passion then a avoid this like the plague, if however you have a taste for this type of thing then there's a lot here to enjoy.

For me it's mainly a nice little mid 90's time capsule, it reminds me of the days when I was younger and I used to eagerly watch Mulder and Scully's latest adventures on the X-Files every week with my then girlfriend. It reminds me of those first issues of Fortean Times magazine that I bought around that time (a magazine I still read every month all these years later). It reminds me of when grey aliens where all over the place. It's a nostalgic blast from the past when the world was a simpler and more naive place, a time when a rubber alien filled with pig's intestines could con half the planet into thinking they where watching a genuine honest to God extra-terrestrial being butchered on a autopsy slab.

Simpler times and simpler pleasures.

I'm giving this a nostalgic 3 dead E.T.'s out of 5. You can find this easily on YouTube, give it a watch and be prepared to be whisked back to a world with less cynicism and more wonder.

ART - 

This documentary was released on video and sold like hot cakes. Some examples of the various VHS covers are shown above.

Below - the newspaper ad for the shows original airing on U.S. television.

Below - The cultural significance of this film continues even now, check out the officially licensed action figure below. Ray Santilli is still clearly coining it in from his little prank (and that's without even mentioning the movie based on the hoax starring "cheeky Geordie funsters" Ant and Dec which you'll probably be relieved to know I WON'T be talking about...)