Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape in Australia) is a found footage horror documentary directed by Dean Alioto. It is a larger-budget version of The McPherson Tape, and originally aired on UPN on January 18, 1998. Kristian Ayre plays Tommy, a teenager in Lake County, Montana, who is making a home movie of his family's Thanksgiving dinner when they are attacked and ultimately abducted by extraterrestrials. The film caused confusion and controversy among first-time viewers, many of whom believed it portrayed real events, and did not realize it was fictional.
^ Roscoe, Jane and Hight, Craig, "Degree 2: critique and hoax" in Faking it - Mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality (Manchester University Press, 2001) ISBN 0-7190-5640-3, pp. 151-155Synopsis
The footage, interspersed with "expert" interviews, begins with the McPherson family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. The power goes out, so Kurt and Brian go outside to check the fuses; Tommy follows with his camera. After finding the fuses charred and partially melted, they head into the woods to investigate a transformer which is throwing sparks.
Acteurs