I remember this was a huge phenomenon when it came out and people were recording it on their home VCR’s and playing it back frame by blurry frame. News programs reported on it. Serious people discussed the reasons why they thought it was fake, as though it wasn’t just grainy footage of a plaster dummy stuffed with spiced meats.
It sparked a genuine debate about whether we were alone in the universe, and what that would mean for human beings. It’s really amazing how easy it was to pull off such an obvious hoax and full a lot of people.
My argument back then, my Occam’s Razor, was this:
The moment the film industry could produce this type of makeup and visual effects, is the moment this thing gets so-called “leaked”.
If this had popped up in 1965 or '78 or even maybe '86… sure, yeah, there may be a compelling mystery to it. But what an incredibly convenient coincidence this actually popped up after things like Total Recall and Terminator 2.