Tuesday 24 September 2013

The Butcher List - "Fire in the Sky"

Netflix is great. It has a vast collection of movies available for a low monthly subscription. Unfortunately, every good thing must end and that includes the licenses on some movies. 'The Butcher List' honours those great movies that will soon disappear from the roster, and we can only hope they will grace the catalogue in the near future.


Alien abductions have been done so many times, with most of them taking their cues from the epic that is Close Encounters, and yet it's a shame that everyone tends to forget about the 'based on real events' movie Fire in the Sky. Not only is it a good example on how to do an alien encounter story, it's a pretty chilling thriller in it's own right, especially if you choose to accept that the story is true.

Based on Travis Walton's 'The Walton Experience', the film follows a group of lumberjacks who, on their way home, suddenly lose a member of the group (Travis) to strange lights. Obviously no one believes their alien story and they become the subjects of a gruelling homicide case as the police and townspeople try to find the missing man's body. It's only when he surfaces 5 days later that events prove more complicated than they seemed.

Robert Patrick turns in a great performance as Travis' best friend while DB Sweeney does a great job as Travis himself, helping to sell the traumatic experience he went through; and traumatic it is as the abduction sequence still proves to be as effective now as it was back in '93, with the scene still disturbing to watch. The only downside is the ending feels a tad anti-climatic but it fits with the whole 'real life' story and doesn't tarnish what is a damn near-perfect sci-fi thriller.


'Fire in the Sky' is available until October 1st and well worth the watch if you have any love for things science fictional.

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