Fire in the Sky - Fear, Earthbound and Ordinary

As much as I'd like to believe in extraterrestrials and interstellar visitors from outer space – I don't.  I can't.  Not really.  The physics just don't work. And the idea that alien species would travel 53 thousand light years in order to abduct people and to perform kinky medical experiments strains credulity.  But that doesn't stop me from wanting to believe…

During the month of October I try to watch a horror movie every day and then to write a little bit about each of them.  But Fire in the Sky (1993) may not be a ‘horror’ movie - not exactly. 

Horror movies often incorporate the strange and otherworldly – monsters, ghosts, demons - or they dwell on the strange and twisted – the demented and depraved – serial killers and slashers.   But the terror of the first half of Fire in the Sky is purely earthbound and ordinary.  It is the fear resulting from a lack of trust. The fear and guilt that grows in men who've lost and failed a friend.  It's also the growing irrational fears of a community slowing turning against its own.

Fire in the Sky is based on the "true story" of Travis Walton, who - according to his book of the same title - was abducted by aliens in November of 1975.  At the time he had been working as a logger in Arizona.  His friends and coworkers, who also claimed to have seen the alien ship, fled when Travis was taken.  Their story was not believed by the town folk, or by members of law enforcement agencies.  Even though they answered every question they were asked and willingly submitted to a polygraph test.

They knew it was an outrageous story.  They could hardly believe it themselves. But what could they do? Fortunately for them Travis reappeared again after five days.  Any charges or allegations of murder were dropped and the community tried to get back to life as usual. 

Fear in the second half of the film turns to the strange and otherworldly as Travis remembers his experiences inside the alien ship – though the experience depicted in the movie departs dramatically from the experience Travis Walton described in his book.  The filmmakers took enormous liberties. The scenes aboard the alien craft are intense and disturbing.  And even though there isn't much in the way of 'blood and gore' these scenes will surely make the squeamish turn away. 

But, for me, it is the earthbound and ordinary fear of the film's first half that is far more terrifying.  It is more terrifying because it is entirely believable   The fear that results from seeing friends and family and a once trusted community slowly turning against you.  Watching as friends and neighbors turn their backs.  If we can't trust each other (even with outrageous stories) the world will be a terrifying place - even without alien abductions and anal probes.