Area 51

Three young men who have spent years looking into UFO lore decide to investigate Area 51, the classified US Air Force site in the Nevada desert that has long been tied to rumours of contact with extraterrestrial life. Their curiosity is sharpened by people they meet along the way, among them a woman who believes she was abducted. Filming everything themselves, they make their way onto the restricted grounds of the base and into its bunkers and laboratories, and what they record there goes far beyond anything they had expected.

The film is a found-footage horror and science-fiction story directed and written by Oren Peli, following his 2007 debut Paranormal Activity and marking his second feature behind the camera. Jason Blum and Steven Schneider produced. The cast includes Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg, Ben Rovner, Jelena Nik, Frank Novak and David Thornsberry, among 21 credited performers.

Released in May 2015, Area 51 was made for about 5 million US dollars, a modest figure by studio standards. Its reception has been subdued: on IMDb the film holds a 3.7 out of 10 from eight critics' reviews, while on TMDB audiences give it 5 out of 10 from 663 votes, a slightly warmer but still low average. The gap suggests viewers were marginally more forgiving of the premise than professional reviewers were.