This is a rarely-seen documentary produced by Italian-Swiss TV in 1997, which consists of two interviews with Whitley Strieber, who was the celebrated author of bestselling horror novels, Wolfen and The Hunger when his life changed forever in the mid-1980s, while he was staying in his cabin in upstate New York and experienced a conscious and traumatic “alien abduction” experience which was extremely invasive and resulted in another hit book, Communion.
This event eventually triggered a series of childhood memories of “alien” contact, which resulted in his book, The Secret School.
But that’s not what this film is about. This is his stark, forthright and unsettling account of his experiences and his reflections on them.
Contrary to what many may think, Strieber does not jump to the conclusion that his experiences are necessarily encounters with extraterrestrials and he also says that he has recall of abduction by humans, during which time an implant was placed in his earlobe, which becomes “excited” by the contents of his interview and becomes hot, turning his ear red.
Strieber discusses the savageries committed upon unwitting human subjects by the CIA’s MK Ultra project (officially between 1953 and 1973) and he doesn’t rule out the possibility that his experiences may be the product of such a project and that indeed, this would need to be ruled out first before taking on more exotic hypothesis.
Strieber’s directness and intensity are both disarming and compelling. I couldn’t stop watching this film. Definitely worth your while.
