Of all the UFO alien movies I’ve seen, Close Encounters of the Third Kind still stands out as being one of the more realistic. Either the writer, screen-writer, producer, or somebody involved with the storyline had to be involved in a personal UFO abduction encounter, or they studied the stories of real life alien encounters. Presumably if you’re going to make a movie, especially one stamped by the esteemed Steven Spielberg, you’d research the more interesting aspects of the storyline.
I am an Experiencer as they now call UFO abductees, and two aspects of Close Encounters of the Third Kind really stand out for me. Jillian Guiler and Roy Neary both had a vision of an object or place that they knew was important. They didn’t know what or where it was, or why it was important, but they KNEW it was somehow important. Most of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was driven by their pursuit of that belief.
Several of my screen memory dreams left me believing that what I’d seen was in some way very important. I never knew why, but the strength of the belief made those particular alien encounters stand out more than the others.
What really stood out for me in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, however, is the little boy Barry. He was just a toddler in the movie, right about the age that my UFO alien abductions first began. He barely knew how to speak but he knew the word TOYS, and he knew that toys were fun.
This sets the stage for one of the most chilling scenes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind — the scene where the UFO aliens are attempting to break into Barry’s house and his mother is fighting their entry with every fiber of her being. They try to open the door and she slams it closed, jamming something against the door to prevent the aliens from getting in. They try doors, windows, the chimney, and even a grate in the floor. Everything in the house is shaking and you can feel the utter terror of a mother trying to protect herself and her young child.
Movie viewers watch in horror as the screws in the floor grate start turning by themselves, popping out one by one. We sit transfixed by the UFO aliens trying to come up through the floor grate, though we never see the aliens, only those screws popping out.
In the background the little boy Barry gets excited. His face lights up and he blurts out, “Toys! Toys!” For some reason he is convinced that if he can get outside, he’ll find toys. Barry has no fear. Childlike with wonder, he crawls out the doggie door and goes running off into a field looking for the toys.
I don’t know how many people caught the significance of that scene. I didn’t even catch it until decades later when I realized that my UFO alien encounters held a similar theme. The UFO aliens used every mental trick they could muster to lure me out of my house. They pretended to be people I knew. They pretended to be the Christian Rapture. They tried simply ordering me to go outside.
Like most of you, I’ve heard the stories of aliens transporting people out through walls and ceilings. My alien abduction encounters were more like the little boy Barry, with the UFO aliens attempting to lure me outside. As a child I was more amenable to wanting to go out to the aliens. As an adult, not so much. The adult alien encounters left me terrified much of the time, even when I didn’t remember what I was afraid of.
The stories of my alien abductions are told in the book Alien Nightmares, which highlights several UFO flaps that have occurred along the eastern United States.
