I stumbled upon Fire In The Sky as an eight year old one night on HBO and was unwittingly plunged into a lifetime fear of aliens. For example, we used to have a window halfway down our staircase. After that fateful Fire In The Sky night, I would literally duck underneath that window when walking past it at night for years. Each and every night.
We used to have a long driveway in a semi-country setting in Kentucky and one of my chores was to take the trash cans to the curb. When this particular chore took place at night, I would race those sons of bitches to the curb and then book it back to the house like my life depended on it. The way I saw it? I was alone, outside, at night in the country. The absolute perfect specimen for aliens to abduct and then drop back off in some kind of time warp like nothing had ever happened. This kind of fear has driven me, a lifelong horror fan, to have a deep seeded love for alien horror. Even today, at the age of 36.
You see, not many horror films truly scare me these days. But alien horror? Even the ones substandard to most send me into a fear frenzy. That’s why I’d love to take a dive with you into alien horror. Movie by movie. Welcome to “Aliens Scare Me”. A deep dive look into alien horror films on a case by case basis…
Communion (1989)
Where it started: Communion is based on the alleged real life experiences of Whitley Strieber. A fiction writer who experienced “visitors” while staying with his wife and son in a cabin in New York. Strieber had written several fiction horror novels before diving into books about environmental apocalypse and nuclear war. This was all before his true life experiences truly began, which he wrote about in multiple books including Communion and Transformation. The film touches on both of these alleged non-fiction accounts.
What it’s about: As far as the film is concerned (which is far different from the book, as most are), Whitley (played by Christopher Walken) is an eccentric writer living in New York with his young son and wife. They, along with two friends, venture off to their secluded cabin in the woods where they are subsequently attacked by visitors in the night. Whitley receives the worst of it when a needle is inserted into his brain by an alien creature that’d been hiding behind his dresser. He’s then given visions of the world exploding and his son dying. In the book he mentions this could have just been his worst fears playing themselves out in his brain more so than a threat or premonition from the aliens.
Whitley doesn’t remember this at first. All he knows is something is very wrong. And he’s spiraling down fast. He becomes frightened by the smallest of shifts in the air, concerning his wife and friends. He fears he’s losing his mind and all he can remember is that possibly one night there was a bright light accompanied by a dream of an owl in the house – the book points out that this is a regular occurrence for those who experience this kind of trauma; they often block their traumatic memories with events involving animals for whatever reason. Fans of The Fourth Kind will remember this happening there as well. Specifically, a white owl.
Eventually Communion takes us on a wild and semi-trippy ride as Whitley undergoes hypnotherapy and begins to recount being abducted by small blue creatures and experimented on by alien-like figures. Meanwhile, he is contending with the fear that he is merely losing his mind as he struggles to keep his marriage together.
Why it’s scary: Look, this movie is wacky as shit. It just is. According to IMDb, the real life Whitley Strieber actually approached Christopher Walken to complain that he thought he was playing the character “a little too crazy”. To which Walken responded: “If the shoe fits”.
This is a movie that many will watch and write off as simply “weird as shit” and maybe even just plain bad. Nobody could blame them. However, for those like me that alien abductions scare the living hell out of? There are moments.
In the vein of Fire In The Sky (which we will no doubt get to in this series), the horror lies mostly in the abduction sequences. There are two types of “visitors” during these sequences. One of which looks like strange blue trolls more so than aliens. These do not frighten me as much as they remind me of the small ghouls in Phantasm.
However, once Whitley is taken to the ship he encounters something that more resembles the scary ass aliens we all imagine in our minds. The effects and “aliens” are Dollar Tree quality but it somehow adds to the freakiness of it all. Their bodies are the size of pencils, their movements just fucked up enough to freak you out even worse.
The film at one point realizes that maybe, just maybe, Walken in a gonzo performance is just as scary as the aliens probing him; In a final sequence the “visitors” toy with him by having a doppelganger (played by Walken) participate. It’s just as off-putting and weirdly awesome as you could imagine.
The scariest part of the whole film however isn’t the aliens. It’s the idea of a man who loves his family dearly but is simply losing his mind. For a while, you even get the sense that the filmmakers don’t believe Whitley and are simply telling the sad tale of a man losing everything to mental illness. One of the few things just as frightening as aliens with bad intentions.
Where it lands: Communion is one of the strangest movies I’ve ever witnessed. Amidst the aforementioned frightening abduction sequences are moments involving Christopher Walken high fiving and dancing with small troll like aliens. The whole film is full of classic Walken-isms which are as entertaining as they are derivative. For example, there’s a moment where the aliens decide to rectally probe him quite violently (I told you it’s strange). He looks square into the alien’s face and says “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you” in a completely calm manner as though he was ordering a sandwich. Only Christopher Walken could get away with this performance and he does.
Through all the laughably batshit sequences here are multiple terrifying scenes for those of us with the disposition of being unreasonably scared of alien encounters. The movie’s biggest weaknesses are the same moments which will make it one of a kind to others. It’s a 6.5/10 for me but definitely a movie that will depend on the eye of the beholder. Communion will be especially interesting for those who enjoy stories they can take a deep dive into, as there’s an endless supply of books and wild stories by the film’s subject; Whitley Strieber.
He even has his own paranormal podcast titled Dreamland. Check it out.
