Agents Mulder and Scully seemingly were there first preaching that ‘The Truth Is Out There‘ in THE X-FILES, but it seems that the real king of sci-fi phenomenon was in fact King James I in England where the so-called ‘Truth’ began around the time of the pre-American Revolution years.
The contrasting landscape of the U.S State of Colorado, with its’ mountain ranges, rich farmland and a prosperous cultural centre in the City of Denver, has been a firm favourite of film-makers over the years, with the likes of Renny Harlin’s CLIFFHANGER (1993) and John Badham’s WARGAMES (1983), which featured a simulation of NORAD, the North American Defence complex that had to deal with a seemingly-real missile launch from the current bad guys of the real world, Russia, thanks to Matthew Broderick’s high school computer genius David Lightman who tapped into the computer, named ‘Joshua’ thinking he was playing a brand-new video game.
Both locations feature in a brand-new scientific streaming documentary, ON THE TRAIL OF UFOS: NIGHT VISITORS, which analyses the mystery and mystical ideals behind alien abduction and cattle mutilation.
Documentary crew Small Town Monsters and investigator Shannon LeGro arrive in Colorado at the Miller Ranch to look at the links between mysterious lights in the sky and livestock pick-ups and pick-offs. In cinematic terms, this takes us back to Steven Spielberg’s classic 1977 film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and possibly elements of M. Night Shyalaman’s flawed Mel Gibson film SIGNS, which looks at crop circles.
However, there are a lot of weird and impossible-to-explain ideas about what the lights in the sky mean and whether or not, but the Miller Ranch seems to be the magnet for phenomenon, with all manner of things both in the air and on the ground. LeGro is taken around various locations, a place she has driven through on occasion before, but never truly explored until this documentary.
There are contributions from people who have had out-of-worldly experiences and also the perception that there is more to this than meets the eagle eye. Relative perspectives about the role of the land being the legacy of American Indians in the region and their own ideas, as well as the ghostly spirits of dead Spanish soldiers, form another mysterious and intriguing concept.
ON THE TRAIL OF UFOS: NIGHT VISITORS will probably be more of interest to people who buy into the co-existent and scientific questions that the documentary film-makers attempt to answer, but without cast iron evidence, you might feel that you are watching a sequel to a Spielberg film. I think we all have some optimism about the existence and relativity of alien life in the Universe – and perhaps we are the true aliens….
That said, as Spielberg’s tag-line for his 1977 film states:
‘Watch The Skies!!’
ON THE TRAIL OF UFOS: NIGHT VISITORS is available now on major streaming platforms from 1091 Pictures, including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and FandangoNOW.
