Frequent Fliers

Studios and producers often arrange special screenings for special-interest groups. In the case of “Communion,” based on writer Whitley Strieber’s best-selling account of his real-life abduction by aliens, that group was extra -special: These were folks who also claim to have had Close Encounters.

Abductees and contactees--that is, persons who claim to have been abducted or contacted by extraterrestrials--attended the screenings recently in N.Y.C., San Diego, San Antonio and St. Louis.

According to Lorie Barnes--a chronic abductee who’s also Strieber’s secretary--the folks were rounded up via “Communion” network groups composed of “hard-core” abductees/contactees in 15 states.

Barnes, 59, had her first contact with a UFO in 1954, she told us, when she saw a blue flying saucer with flashing white lights that hovered about 50 feet overhead. Four years later, she added, she was physically abducted--like Strieber, taken aboard a spaceship for examination. She said she’s since been abducted three other times physically, and numerous times “astrally.”

An admittedly biased viewer--Strieber wrote and co-produced the film--Barnes liked it “tremendously,” though she found some of the depicted aliens a bit “plastic” looking.

As for the screening she attended in N.Y.C.: “Oh, there was lots of applause. But not from everyone. Some people were also silent and thoughtful. You know, the film had brought back scary memories.”

Starring Christopher Walken as Strieber, the film--from New Line Cinema--opened last weekend to a down-to-earth $1 million in ticket sales.