Details

Release year: 1989

Storyline

On a typical fall evening in 1983, a young man was videotaping his niece's 5th birthday party. As the night's strange occurrences took place, he kept his video camera running, recording the entire event.

Top credits

Directors

Dean Alioto

Writers

Dean Alioto

Cast

Tommy Giavocchini — Eric Van Heese
Patrick Kelley — Jason Van Heese
Shirly McCalla — Ma Van Heese
Stacey Shulman — Renee Reynolds

See all 12 credits →

Did you know

• Due to the master tape being destroyed in a warehouse fire shortly after being picked up for distribution, the film was very rare for several years. Director Dean Alitio began selling VHS copies of the film via e-mail in 2003 and, as of 2022, has sold remastered DVDs and digital downloads of the film. He has since been able to convert the film to Blu-Ray, with special features (such as a commentary) for the film.

• Commonly known under the incorrect name, The McPherson Tape. This is due to the true origin of the movie falling into obscurity when around the early 90s, a pirated version without credits was widely circulated as authentic. The film does not actually concern anyone named McPherson; it's about the fictional Van Heese family. The later remake, Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998), does however feature a fictional McPherson family. The remake was originally titled The McPherson Tape before execs at UPN changed it. Many internet databases mistakenly use the two titles of the films interchangeably. As a result, the distributor of the film's 2020 Blu-Ray release opted to use the more well-known title, The McPherson Tape.

• Dean Alioto, director and co-writer of the film, said his vision for the movie was "to make The War Of The Worlds on videotape." This was in reference to the 1938 Orson Welles radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel, which was mistakenly believed to be real by multiple listeners. Ironically, this film was also mistakenly believed to be real footage of an alien abduction by many viewers.