Fire in the Sky (1993)

I have always had a paralyzing fear of being abducted by aliens. In fifth grade I had to sleep with my mom, because I was certain they were coming for me. To this day, if my cat is not sleeping on my bed, I am afraid to be alone, defenseless. This movie is the stuff of my nightmares. Well, at least the abduction scene is. Or it was until the aliens were revealed to look something like Toad from Super Mario Bros. In reality, Walton's abduction experience was quite benign, and is considered to be one of the most boring alien abduction stories. In fact, the aliens never laid a finger on him until he started trying to attack them. But Walton's extra-terrestrial captors are much more menacing in this film adaptation, performing all manner of sadistic experiments upon him. Sadly, aside from the extended abduction sequence, this is a rather straightforward and uninteresting film. The screenplay is rather uninspired, and characters more or less act as one would expect. This could have been an excellent horror movie, but it is far too sanitized, and too obviously a product of Hollywood to leave any kind of lasting impression. What Fire in the Sky called for is a director like Cronenberg who specializes in character-driven body horror. Sadly, we are left with a rather sub-par package.