{"id":43733,"date":"2024-05-06T14:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T18:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43733"},"modified":"2024-05-06T15:43:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T19:43:58","slug":"bad-movie-monday-the-mcpherson-tape-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/06\/bad-movie-monday-the-mcpherson-tape-1989\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Movie Monday: THE MCPHERSON TAPE (1989)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Most found footage films are pretty review-proof. Seriously, how could anyone dare criticize a movie like The McPherson Tape? It is the perfect example of a no-budget film made by people working with what they had and trying to make something interesting. Criticism in cases like this feels like a venial sin, worthy of the pillory. So obviously I am totally going to review it<\/i>, but by now I like to consider myself an expert at this sort of thing. Don\u2019t try this at home kids.
\n<\/p>\n

The McPherson Tape is a masterclass in no-budget filmmaking. It has a single location, a cast of about seven people (one of which is the camera operator\/director) and a script that seems to have been written loosely enough to allow quite a bit of improvisation. To me, this is a pretty foolproof method of making something out of nothing. Because, as I\u2019ve said before but which bears repeating, your movie WILL run into problems. Huge, catastrophic, ridiculous, shaking your fists at the heavens and screaming at God kind of problems. You have no money. You have no time. You have almost no experience. You have a microscopic amount of resources. You gotta work with what ya got and you don\u2019t got much. So don\u2019t give yourself any more headaches than you need. Simplify. Streamline. Strip your ideas down to their core. Ask yourself this: \u201cWhat am I trying to do and how can I do in the most efficient way using what I have?\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is The McPherson Tape trying to do? Well, it\u2019s trying to scare the holy bejesus out of you by showing an ordinary family encountering aliens during the youngest daughter\u2019s birthday party. Is it successful? Well… no. Not completely. It gets the birthday party family home video vibe really good, but scares are a little on the light side for my taste. I don\u2019t blame the filmmakers too much. One of the downsides of a found footage film is that you are somewhat limited on what you can do since the film is supposed to have been filmed by amateurs using home video equipment. That said, the upside of this is that the film can feel very real. So even if the scares are a bit light, the ones that do occur can hit deeper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SYNOPSIS:<\/strong> This one’s easy. Imagine the Blair Witch Project shot 10 years earlier, except that it\u2019s about Aliens instead of a witch, taking place in a cabin during a birthday party instead of in the woods while filming a documentary. Boom. Done. Explained. You don\u2019t need to know more than that.<\/p>\n

TEN THOUGHTS I HAD WHILE WATCHING THE MOVIE<\/strong><\/p>\n

#1 \u2013 63 minutes long. Glory be! So many movies would improve drastically at this length. The pacing is a bit slow, unhurried<\/i> one could say, but at least it doesn\u2019t overstay it\u2019s welcome.<\/p>\n

#2 \u2013 All found footage films have the same Achilles heel, which is that there\u2019s no soundtrack. Yes, you can do a lot with sound\u00a0design<\/i>, but you just have to watch a John Carpenter movie to understand how the score can help elevate a film to the next level.<\/p>\n

#3 \u2013 The same goes for cinematography. You can do a lot with lighting and blocking, but in the end it all has to feel naturally shot on a hand held camera. So you can\u2019t go all Sam Raimi or Dario Argento.<\/p>\n

#4 \u2013 I really like the cabin that McPherson Tape was shot in. If any of you ever wondered what the real 80s looked like, this movie will answer all your questions.<\/p>\n

#5 \u2013 Most people will either fall into the “This is kind of interesting.” camp, or the “WHEN IS THIS SHIT GOING TO END???” camp. There can be no middle ground.<\/p>\n

#6 \u2013 There was zero budget for this film, and so there are zero special effects more complex than rubber masks in dark atmospheric lighting and a \u201cspaceship\u201d prop seen from 200 feet away.<\/p>\n

#7 \u2013 I’m sort of shocked this movie doesn’t have the same reputation as FEEDERS, another zero budget alien movie that had far more success. I genuinely believe that if some sleazy low brow channel had played this as \u201creal\u201d footage of an alien abduction, perhaps edited into a fake documentary hosted by Jonathan Frakes, this would have gained some traction. It would have been better than that ALIEN AUTOPSY bullshit they made anyway.<\/p>\n

#8 – This movie can be slow, almost dull, but it is legitimately well made and is imbued with the kind of neo-realism that most found footage films only wish they could evoke.<\/p>\n

#9 \u2013 The second half of the film, when there\u2019s the most action, weirdly felt the slowest. I have to admit, I kind of liked the slow leisurely build up. It felt cozy. The second half of the film, while I also liked it, felt less real.<\/p>\n

#10 \u2013 I\u2019m not sure if I \u201cenjoyed\u201d this movie or not. I\u2019m so on the fence. I liked the concept and it\u2019s ethos, but I also did find myself bored often. That said, I’m proud of the people who made it. Because they made one more movie than I ever have. Besides, any movie that makes you wrestle with how you feel about it can\u2019t be all bad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WAS IT REALLY A BAD MOVIE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t call it bad, not exactly, but it\u2019s very slow. Do you like watching home movies? Because if you\u2019re going to watch The McPherson Tape I certainly hope that you do. For your sake. That\u2019s all the critique I can really give it. This movie can\u2019t be described, only experienced, and I think it\u2019s an experience worth having.<\/p>\n

THE MCPHERSON TAPE is a 1989 found footage horror film starring Tommy Giavocchini as Eric Van Heese, Patrick Kelley as Jason Van Heese, Shirly McCalla as Ma Van Heese, Stacey Shulman as Renee Reynolds, Christine Staples as Jamie Van Heese, Laura Tomas as Michelle Van Heese (the birthday girl), and Dean Alioto as Michael Van Heese. It was written directed by Dean Alioto<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most found footage films are pretty review-proof. Seriously, how could anyone dare criticize a movie like The McPherson Tape? It is the perfect example of a no-budget film made by people working with what they had and trying to make something interesting. Criticism in cases like this feels like a venial sin, worthy of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3070],"tags":[88,370,477,501,1008],"class_list":["post-43733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-badmoviemonday","tag-aliens","tag-found-footage","tag-horror","tag-indie-film","tag-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43737,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43733\/revisions\/43737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}