Editorials
Looking Back on the Mundane Monsters of MTV’s “Death Valley” 10 Years Later
Here’s a question no one’s ever asked before: what do you get when you hire one of the minds behind Scrubs (Curtis Gwinn) and the creator of Fat Guy Stuck in Internet (Eric Weinberg) to create a TV show based on an idea by Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One? Well, you get the criminally underseen Death Valley, a short-lived MTV program about ordinary cops living in an extraordinary world. Ten years after its final episode, I’d like to shine a light on this overlooked gem and explore how it paved the way for contemporary hits like Wellington Paranormal and What We Do in the Shadows.
Taking place in an alternate version of the San Fernando Valley where zombies, vampires and werewolves are about as common as drug deals and armed robberies, Death Valley is a Cops-styled mockumentary show chronicling the misadventures of the Undead Task Force. With a single 12-episode season that aired throughout 2011, the show explored the daily struggles of law enforcement having to deal with absurd and horrific crimes, all the while being followed by a drama-hungry documentary crew.
While the show was never a certified hit, garnering only modest ratings and a small but dedicated cult following, I believe it was one of the best horror comedies to come out before the TV horror boom of the mid-2010s. With more than a little inspiration from that one episode of The X-Files where Mulder and Scully find themselves being hounded by a reality TV crew during an investigation (Season 7’s excellent X-Cops), Death Valley was a creative departure from your usual supernatural-based programming.
Unlike most shows featuring modern-day monster hunters, the heroes of Death Valley aren’t super-powered chosen ones or even members of a proper special forces unit, they’re just regular cops who happened to deal with the occasional man-eating creature of the night. They may pack UV flashlights and retractable wooden stakes (as well as the occasional baseball bat and grenade launcher), but this is still a down-to-earth romp about a world where society has had to adjust to the existence of the supernatural.
How do you arrest a dead suspect?
The show’s nonchalant approach to world-building is actually part of its charm, with characters claiming that the undead has been plaguing society for about a year now, with no real explanation as to how it happened or why. Werewolf attacks and zombie infections have become so common that they’re treated like a nuisance, more akin to public intoxication and disorderly conduct than a threat to civilization. This setup is meant to be comedic, but it also makes the show feel like a more realistic take on how most people would react (or refuse to react) to real-world monsters.
The clever scene transitions are a great example of this, showing brief glimpses of the undead wreaking havoc across town as citizens go about their day. These moments really help with the atmosphere, further elucidating how the undead have become just another quirk of life in California. The documentary-style presentation also keeps things believable as we accompany these police officers on their quest to break up vampire parties and reprimand werewolves that aren’t abiding to the mandatory curfew.
The show even gets a little serious at times, often using the undead menace as clear analogues for real-world issues like HIV, drunk driving and even the opioid epidemic. Hell, one episode even introduces us to vampire prostitutes who sell themselves for a taste of blood, showing the grittier side of a world where people have to deal with Vampiric curses alongside traditional STDs. While these situations are mostly presented as tongue-in-cheek satire, there’s no denying that some of it hits close to home.
Of course, the real backbone of Death Valley is comprised by the officers themselves and their quirky personalities. Featuring cops like the over-enthusiastic John-John (Texas Battle), the honorable everyman Joe Stubeck (Charlie Sanders) and the secretly bad-ass rookie Kirsten (Caity Lotz), the show’s unique character dynamics had enough potential for several more seasons, with some moments being reminiscent of a more horror-centric Brooklyn 99. Personally, my favorite character was the batshit-crazy Captain Dashell (played to perfection by Bryan Callen), though his constant sexual remarks were a bit too much even for 2011 standards.
A bit more action-packed than your average workplace comedy.
Curiously, the documentary crew is often dragged into the action as well, with sound technicians and cameramen finding themselves in constant peril as they attempt to record the action. With most mockumentary productions opting for a “fly-on-the-wall” approach to justify the aesthetic, it’s fun to see a show embrace the crew as a part of the narrative, even if it makes some of the inconsistent camera setups and impossible angles a little more noticeable (though that’s a nitpick I have with almost all mockumentary shows).
Unfortunately, that’s not Death Valley‘s only shortcoming, as some of the humor is a bit hit-and-miss, with quite a few dated references and some arguably offensive stereotyping. Some of the action sequences are also a little lacking, though that has more to do with the limited budget than anything else. Even so, I think it’s safe to say that most of these issues would have been addressed in future seasons had the showrunners been given the opportunity. As it stands, the show is still worth a watch for genre fans, especially with its smorgasbord of practical gore and monster effects, but I can’t help but wonder where these stories could have gone next.
While there’s little chance of a series revival at this point, I really appreciate what the show did for televised horror comedies and wish we could have seen more. That’s why I’d argue that Death Valley is still worth checking out a decade later despite ending on a demonic cliff-hanger. The show might have been aiming for comedy, but I think there’s something truly frightening about the idea that, even if vampires, werewolves and zombies were real, regular people would still have to get up and go to work in the morning.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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