Apart from the sad facts about the star, and about Dottie West not too much later, I only know two things about this film. First, it's the only movie I know of that's connected with the 1897 "Airship" (a subject I'm very attached to), which was (strangely enough) a wave of U.F.O. stories from much of the country in 1896-97. (Although most U.F.O. and / or Airship believers don't believe the Aurora, TX. story.) The other is this - a rural comedy, or comedy-drama, or fantasy story, cannot possibly be all bad if it has Jack Elam! And the other actors (including Dottie West, not a professional actress) did very well too. I'm sure this has been labeled a low budget answer to a Disney movie, or E.T., as one person put it, but there's nothing wrong with that.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie - I would like to give some history on this movie - it was not, as some may believe, and exploitation of a sick child, rather it was the granting of a dying wish of a child, Mickey Hays, to be a movie star. For that reason alone, I applaud this movie, and as hokey as it is, I enjoyed the positive message of the little alien coming to Earth and interacting with the citizens (and animals) of Aurora, Texas. Even though it has a sad ending, it also had many laughs, and several positive messages.

Once in a while a movie is so horrific, poorly made, and of such poor taste that it actually crosses into the realms of what I consider to be an entertaining flick. Aurora Encounter successfully achieves good scores on all the criteria I deem to be important. From the semi-novel plot of an alien encounter set in the past to the annoying synthesizer music throughout to the poorly acted, cheese-puffed dialogue...it satisfied me. Take all the poor production techniques and anti-climactic plot, slap'em together and add the most distasteful choice of all...the use of a CHILD with a degenerative disease as a hideous alien. The people that went along with making this film obviously had no spine for I cannot understand why anyone would take part in the exploitation of a fourteen year old kid! He was going to die soon of this disease! So now that I've established why myself and everyone else that enjoys this picture or has anything to do with it is going to hell, may I also say that I believe this film is the making of a quality B flick and is entertaining on many levels. I've also recently learned that recording artist DJ Shadow samples this film in his album Endtroducing..... An album you should definitely check out. Try and find the sample(s)...it's fun. I'm telling you, there's something special about this movie.

I saw this movie a long time ago, and I'm not sure why, but it sticks in my mind as one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's some silly story about an alien who lands in Aurora in a tin plate spaceship (with strings attached) and hangs out for a while. Take my word for it, don't rent this movie.