MidWest WeirdFest Film Reviews: “Alien Abduction: Answers” and “Lightships”
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
MidWest WeirdFest offers up two thought-provoking takes on the UFO contactee experience, with Alien Abduction: Answers providing a documentary view and Lightships serving up a narrative spin.
Director John Yost lived with mystery, shame, and fear for 45 years because of a highly unusual incident that took place in his home when he was a young boy. In his documentary Alien Abduction: Answers, he seeks resolution to those issues, and to why fears surrounding home invasion, deep water, and dark skies haunt him. His journey is a compelling one as he meets fellow Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind contactees and people trying to help them understand their experiences, such as Quantum Hypnotherapist Debz Shakti Buller.
Yost’s approach is a measured one, staying clear of sensationalism as contactees tell of their experiences and how they have learned to live with them. Communion author Whitley Strieber provides some thought-provoking commentary, as well.
Yost eschews luridness in the recreations of these people’s memories and focuses on the positive ways they have come to terms with their unique experiences. He emphasizes understanding and trying to make peace with his issues, and bonds with the other contactees he meets, making Alien Abduction: Answers a positive, uplifting watch.
Writer/director John Harrigan’s Lightships (U.K., 2021) is an enigmatic narrative feature that alternately baffles, frustrates, and captivates. Based in part on the book Remembrance: Pleiadian Messages in Preparation for Contact (Logbooks of the League of Light Book 1) by UFO contactee Maryann Rada, the film opens with Eve (Lois Temel) waking up in a confused state in a strange facility with no knowledge of where she is, confronted by and with a group of other people, all dressed in white, acting bizarrely. She keeps a journal of messages that she receives from extraterrestrial entities, which she hopes will help solve the mystery of her family’s sudden disappearance — but someone allegedly on the medical staff wants her to destroy the journal.
The scenes in that confined space, which houses a mysterious room, bordered on frustrating for this reviewer — I could appreciate the echoes of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco at play, but the characters come off as abrasive here. Without doubt, though, is that the ensemble cast members give their all in their delivery. More intriguing to me were the scenes with Eve outside of the facility, whether they were flashbacks to before her son Orion (Ethan-James Harrigan) and her husband disappeared, or visions she had.
Lightships is a divisive film that will likely engage most successfully with readers of Rada’s work, those with more than a mere casual interest in the contactee experience, and aficionados of experimental science fiction films.
Alien Abduction: Answers and Lightships screen as part of MidWest WeirdFest, which takes place March 4–6, 2022 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. For more information, visit http://www.midwestweirdfest.com/.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/). He also writes for the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and B & S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com) and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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