Alien Autopsy (1995 film)

VHS cover of Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction

Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is a 1995 pseudo-documentary containing grainy black and white footage of a hoaxed alien autopsy.[1][2] In 1995, film purporting to show an alien autopsy conducted shortly after the Roswell incident was released by British entrepreneur Ray Santilli.[3] The footage aired on television networks around the world.[4][3] Fox television broadcast the purported autopsy, hosted by Jonathan Frakes, on August 28, 1995, under the title Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction, and re-broadcast it twice, each time to higher ratings.[5] The footage was also broadcast on UK's Channel 4,[6] and repackaged for the home video market. The program was an overnight sensation,[7] with Time magazine declaring that the film had sparked a debate "with an intensity not lavished on any home movie since the Zapruder film".[8]

The program was thoroughly debunked. The autopsy footage was filmed on an inexpensive set constructed in a London living room. Its alien bodies were hollow plaster casts filled with offal, sheep brains, and raspberry jam.[9] Multiple participants in Alien Autopsy stated that misleading editing had removed their opinions that the footage was a hoax.[8][7] Santilli admitted in 2006 that the film was a fake, though he continued to claim it was inspired by genuine, but lost footage.[7]

Alien Autopsy was derided in the media. In 1995, The X-Files featured alien autopsy footage that the skeptical Agent Scully decries as "even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network".[10] It was satirized again in the 1996 X-Files episode Jose Chung's From Outer Space.[7][11] In 1998, Fox aired a new special, The World's Greatest Hoaxes and Secrets Revealed!, which debunked the 1995 Alien Autopsy footage.[12] A fictionalized version of the creation of the footage and its release was retold in the comedy film Alien Autopsy (2006).[13][14]

  1. ^ Goldberg 2001, p. 219
  2. ^ Korff 1997, pp. 203–217
  3. ^ a b Frank 2023, p. 1101
  4. ^ "Alien Autopsy (1995 film), on season 8 , episode 2". Scientific American Frontiers. Chedd-Angier Production Company. 1997–1998. PBS. Archived from the original on 2006-01-01.
  5. ^ Kuczynski, Alex; Carter, Bill (February 26, 2000). "Fox's Point Man For Perversity". The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  6. ^ "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute". collections-search.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-11-01.
  7. ^ a b c d Levy & Mendlesohn 2019, p. 32
  8. ^ a b Corliss, Richard (November 27, 1995). "Autopsy or Fraud-topsy?". Time. Archived from the original on December 16, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  9. ^ Frank 2023, p. 1109
  10. ^ Knight 2013, p. 50
  11. ^ Lavery, Hague & Cartwright 1996, p. 17
  12. ^ Levy & Mendlesohn 2019, p. 32.
  13. ^ Osborn, Michael (April 5, 2006). "Ant and Dec Leap into the Unknown". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on April 9, 2006. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  14. ^ "Max Headroom Creator Made Roswell Alien". The Sunday Times. April 16, 2006. Archived from the original on May 22, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2013.