I know what you’re thinking… and before you fans of Ridley Scott’s Alien or John Carpenter’s The Thing come for my throat, at least hear me out. Both of those films are in my top-five horror movies of all time, for a plethora of different reasons. Alien was essentially a slasher movie in space, sported an incredible setting and creature design from H.R. Giger, and birthed one of the most hardcore female action protagonists of all time.
The Thing is completely unmatched in its practical horror effects, and is possibly the best horror movie from the best horror-focused director of all time. Trust me, I love those movies.
Related: Retro: ‘The Thing’ Still Stands Among Isolation Horror’s Best
Now, Robert Lieberman obviously doesn’t have the recognition or respect of either of those directors. He’s mostly dabbled around in various TV show direction, but has contributed to some of the most successful shows in TV history, including The X-Files, The Dead Zone, and Dexter. But 30 years ago, Lieberman directed a mid-budget biographical sci-fi movie called Fire in the Sky, which may just be the most terrifying alien film of all time.

The film is a loose adaptation of the real-life abduction story of Travis Walton, a forestry worker that went missing for five days near Snowflake, Arizona, in 1975. The movie was written by Walton, along with regular Star Trek: The Next Generation writer, Tracy Tormé.
The story follows the account of five friends who witness an extraterrestrial attack on Travis Walton, played by D.B. Sweeney, and once he returns, he details the horrifying tale of his abduction.
Walton’s friends are fantastically played by Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Craig Sheffer (Nightbreed), Peter Berg (Shocker), Henry Thomas (E.T., The Haunting of Hill House), and Bradley Gregg (Stand by Me, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors). The local investigating officer, Lt. Frank Watters, is played by the Oscar-nominated James Garner.
So, what makes Fire in the Sky so scary? The first and most important aspect is its realism.

Alien and The Thing are scary in their own right, but one takes place far in the future, and one takes place in remote Antarctica. The possibility of being in these situations is pretty much impossible. Fire in the Sky, on the other hand, can take place in any small town in America. The characters aren’t spaceship pilots or research expedition members, they’re your everyday Tom, Dick, and Harry.
Related: 35 Years Later: ‘Aliens’ is Still a Masterpiece of Tension, Dread and Horror
Walton is attacked near his worksite, right down the road from his home, and in front of his friends. There’s no isolation, no creature stalking him, no strange setting. The friends simply stumble onto the wrong place at the wrong time, and Walton’s curiosity transforms into a horrifying and mysterious experience.
It’s in this everyman story-building that creates such tension that bookends one of the most disturbing scenes in all sci-fi movies.
As Walton suffers from a PTSD episode, he remembers his abduction in full force, waking up aboard an alien craft, covered in a viscous membrane, in a hatchery-style tomb next to partly-dissolved, less-fortunate abductees. As Walton gains his bearings and maneuvers around the craft, he finds sleek, grey space suits, made to look like the stereotypical aliens of pop culture.

After being surprised by an extraterrestrial creature, Walton finds himself being forcibly dragged to some kind of operating table, where he’s stripped naked, covered with a sheet-like membrane, has his mouth stuffed with gelatinous mucus, and is tortured, probed, and prodded by alien tech. Walton’s blood-curdling screams, along with the scene’s length and visual depth, make it nightmarish, to say the least.
A number of technical gurus were behind making this scene as memorable and scary as it was. The first being composer Mark Isham, whose booming and intense score set the stage for the scene. Isham was no stranger to intense films, either, as he had composed the scores for films like Point Break and The Hitcher, and would go on to do TimeCop, The Mist and The Net.
The art decoration and set design were masterfully crafted by Mark W. Mansbridge (The Chronicles of Riddick, TRON: Legacy), Daniel Loren May (Anaconda), and John Goodson, who worked as a digital artist for films like The Avengers, Star Trek (2009), Bumblebee, and still does ILM work for recent Star Wars projects, like Rogue One, Solo, and most recently, The Mandalorian.

The practical effects were a mishmash of geniuses in the effects world, starting with Bill Pope, who would become the cinematographer for movies like The Matrix and Spider-Man 2, and eventually the director of photography in MCU movies like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
David Heron (Super 8), Dan Nelson (Avengers: Infinity War), Jules Mann (Jurassic Park, Iron Man), and Mark Lilienthal (Small Soldiers) all came together to bring the gruesome abduction scene in Fire in the Sky to life. As you can see, some impressive minds went into its crafting.
So, admittedly Fire in the Sky isn’t as iconic as many other popular alien horror films, but it’s certainly scarier, which is wild, considering the movie mostly feels more like a tale along the lines of Super 8 or Nope (which clearly drew some inspiration from it) than it does a sci-fi horror film.
If you’ve never seen Fire in the Sky, do yourself a favor and wait until you’re alone at night, make yourself a snack, sit in the dark, and prepare to be properly terrified.