The McPherson Tape
“The uncut video footage from the North Woods, Connecticut U.F.O. Case 77”
Synopsis
On October 8, 1983, the Van Heese family came together to celebrate the fifth birthday of Michelle, the youngest member of the household. The event was recorded on VHS by Michael McPherson using his new camcorder, and the footage also captured an unexpected alien invasion.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 11
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Box Office
1989 · Box office
Produced on a $7K budget
Production budget
$7K
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Cast & Crew
11 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Tommy Giavocchini
as Eric Van Heese
Patrick Kelley
as Jason Van Heese
Shirly Mccalla
as Ma Van Heese
Stacey Shulman
as Renee Reynolds
Christine Staples
as Jamie Van Heese
Laura Tomas
as Michelle Van Heese
Dean Alioto
as Michael Van Heese
Kay Parten
as Alien Number 1
Ginny Kleker
as Alien Number 2
Rose Schneider
as Alien Number 3
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
1Parents Guide
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