Conspiracy theories about aliens have always been something that have interested me, which I can thank my father for. I remember as a child being filled with both wonder and horror while flicking through the many books he had on the subject. The grown up me is far too cynical to really believe in any of that stuff, it still however remains a very interesting subject, and one that even if I no longer believe, find it fascinating to contemplate it being the truth. I couldn't find any sort of image for the doc, so apologies for the somewhat basic looking cover image I took off my phone!
Alien Conspiracies: The Hidden Truth is an hour long documentary written and directed by Steve Lawson (Ripper's Revenge, The Mummy Resurrection), and narrated by Mark Topping (Jekyll and Hyde). Over six chapters it looks at some of the most popular theories involving aliens, which takes in all the typical subjects you might expect. The first two chapters, Ancient Astronauts and Clues in History were the ones I found most interesting. The idea explored being that ancient aliens visited Earth and boosted our evolution, as well as point to evidence that throughout history we have witnessed UFOs in the skies above. This includes depictions of apparent machines in Egyptian hieroglyphics. and religious paintings that depict flying machines.
The third chapter, Disappearing was the one I found the most 'out there' with the focus mainly on the Bermuda Triangle. No less interesting, with the culmination in the theory that there could be an alien base hidden under the water in that area, whose residents don't wish humans to discover.
Fourth chapter, Alien Abduction was one I had been expecting, though had less to it than you might expect, mainly focussing on two different cases, that of Betty and Barney Hill, and the first recorded case of alien abduction occuring in England. The testimony of a police officer was certainly again quite interesting!
Penultimate chapter Area 51 was another fan favourite, with this briefly mentioning the Roswell incident, before going into theories about what could be kept at the site. Even including that meme from a few years back when people were supposedly going to meet at the base and attempt to storm it in numbers. This leads into final chapter The Internet Age which in pure conspiracy fashion talks about how our hidden overlords are controlling what we are able to talk about on the web.
The clue is in the title with this documentary, these are all conspiracies, and there isn't really a strong viewpoint to this being literally true, the main 'talking head' is a Yorkshire man who states that these could potentially be true. I found him entertaining to listen to, and appreciated the twinkle in his eyes you could see as he talked about all this stuff. I guess this may have benefitted by more viewpoints, as outside of him there was only really one other person giving their viewpoint. Outside of the talking head moments, there are plenty of archive footage, photos, illustrations and CG mockups to compliment the narration. I appreciated how much of this there was, made this visually interesting to watch.
With Alien Conspiracies: The Hidden Truth there may not be anything revolutionary to be found here, but it goes through its topics in a way that is never dull. It leans on the side of these perhaps being true, but it doesn't double down in a way that comes across as ridiculous.
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