Cross a paranormal investigation show with a celebrity reality show and what do you get? Jack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs, a ninety-minute special in which Ozzie’s son Jack (Portals to Hell, The Osbournes Want to Believe) and his buddies Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Halloweed) and Jamie Kennedy (Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell, Trick) head into the Uinta Basin region of Utah to see if they can catch sight of a UFO or any of the phenomena associated with them.
For most of the first half hour, Mewes and Kennedy might as well not even be there. It’s mostly all Osbourne, whose trying to make a career for himself in the paranormal field, talking to other researchers while they stand around. There’s a helicopter flight over the area as well, which does let us see some beautiful scenery and hear so many mentions of the nearby Skinwalker Ranch that it felt like this was an advertisement for that show.
When the three of them finally head out to look for UFOs they’re joined by another investigator, Ben Hansen. Unfortunately, most of their first night is spent lying on the ground shining flashlights into the sky and lots of night vision shots of satellites. Do they see anything odd? They get excited about a light seen at a distance, where, “there are no roads so it can’t be a car”. I guess they thought that truck they were driving is the only 4×4 in the area..
And that is what Jack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs gives the viewer. It’s the same format as any of the current crop of paranormal shows airing on basic cable channels like Discovery, The Travel Channel, etc. We get interviews with witnesses that range from the credible to one man who claims “non-human entities” have been following him for decades. Cliff drawings that allegedly depict aliens and some very inconclusive video footage.
The level of how seriousJack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs seems to take its research is made pretty clear when they check out Fantast Canyon, which supposedly is a hotspot for skinwalkers. They make an offering of corn and tobacco to the spirits by hacking open a can of corn, dumping its contents on the ground and tossing a pack of cigarettes on it, the camera making sure we can tell what brand they are.
The publicity for Jack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs makes much of the fact they claim to have caught footage of a skinwalker. And Jack does see a figure walking towards their vehicles then turning and running off. But the footage is so grainy and unclear that most Sasquatch hunters would be embarrassed to show it to anyone. It could as easily have been a hiker who saw a bunch of trucks and SUVs parked in the middle of the desert, assumed it was smugglers and got the hell out of there for all we can tell.
By bringing along Kennedy and Mewes instead of trained investigators Jack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs kills the possibility of informed discussion within the group about what they’re seeing. That might have been OK if they were there to be funny and spoof what was going on. But they don’t, they just blandly tag along and occasionally mention they believe in UFOs. We do get the mystery of what’s on Kennedy’s hoodie that needed to be blurred out, but that’s about as much as they add to the proceedings.
If you’re interested in this kind of phenomenon there are better films out there, such as Seth Breedlove’s On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors. Despite being one of his less impressive documentaries it’s still more interesting and informative than this celebrity slop.
But if you’re a diehard Jason Mewes fan, Osbourne’s junkie, or need to see Jack Osbourne’s Night of Terror: UFOs for some other reason, it’s available to stream on the Discovery+ streaming platform. If you’re looking for more mysteries to solve, FilmTagger has some suggestions for you.