Alien Autopsy

Alien Autopsy (2006) is a sci-fi comedy you can watch online on iFILM. It springs from a true story: in the mid-nineties two London mates passed off a staged black-and-white reel as footage of an extraterrestrial being dissected, then sold it to broadcasters around the globe. Johnny Campbell directs.

Gary and Ray — a small-time hustler and his motormouth pal — are played by British TV duo Ant and Dec, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. A reel that is impossible to verify and easy to sell lands in their hands. When the original starts falling apart, the pair reshoot their "discovery" in a garage with a rubber corpse and chicken offal. The prank snowballs from there, dragging in TV money men, with Bill Pullman as a slick producer and veteran Harry Dean Stanton as an old cameraman holding his own version of events.

Campbell turns one of the most notorious media hoaxes into a light, cheerfully daft comedy about how badly people want to believe. The two stars are essentially playing themselves, and the film coasts on their easy banter. It suits anyone in the mood for a breezy con caper laced with UFO folklore. Stream Alien Autopsy (2006) online on iFILM.