The Fourth Kind

Horrorphile

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The Fourth Kind

May 5th 2010 00:01

I was very excited about this movie when Natalina, over at Extraordinary Intelligence, gave me the heads up on the trailer a few months back. It looked right up my malevolent alien alley. Unfortunately The Fourth Kind (2009) is ruined by the worst kind of treatment: it’s over-produced and pretentious. Writer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi seems to have gone to the same school of filmmaking as M. Night Shyamalan, where the production values are overly lush, the narrative dramatics are painfully obvious, and it’s emotionally overwrought. It does possess a couple of intense, paranormal moments, but unfortunately they simply aren’t powerful enough to warrant sitting through the rest of the 95-odd minute movie for.

Milla Jovovich as Dr. Abigail Tyler

Things get off to a very shaky start when a blurry silhouette approaches the camera from down a forest path. The focus sharpens and Milla Jovovich talks directly to the camera as the background moves around her as if she’s stepped onto a carousel; “I’m actress Milla Jovovich, and I will be portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler in The Fourth Kind. This film is a dramatisation of events that occurred October 1st through the 9th of 2000, in the Northern Alaskan town of Nome. To better explain the events of this story, the director has included actual archived footage throughout the film. This footage was acquired from Nome psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, who has personally documented over 65 hours of video and audio materials during the time of the incidents. To better protect their privacy, we have changed the names and professions of many of the people involved. Every dramatised scene in this movie is supported by either archived audio, video or as it was related by Dr. Tyler during extensive interviews with the director. In the end, what you believe is yours to decide. Please be advised, that some of what you're about to see is extremely disturbing.”

Elias Koteas as Dr. Abel Campos

Righto. Thanks for that Osunsanmi, however I should point out Nightmare Movie Rule #1: Never warn audience that they are likely to be disturbed. That’s like shooting yourself in the foot. So the level of pomposity is already firmly in place. But it quickly gets worse. Osunsanmi then makes the artistic and dramatic decision to run the supposed actual archive footage alongside the dramatised re-creations, sometimes with split screen and overlapping dialogue, other times by cutting back and forth. The end result - novel it may be - cancels the other out in terms of effectiveness. The performances from Jovovich and the rest of the cast, including Will Patton as skeptical Sheriff August, simply aren’t good enough, with only Elias Koteas as her initially skeptical psychologist colleague Abel Campos delivering his usual solidity.

Abigail Tyler (?) as Dr. Abigail Tyler

The supposed archival footage isn’t convincing; primarily because the woman playing the real Abigail Tyler isn’t a good enough actor, despite her deeply harrowed expression. Director Osunsanmi is attempting a Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007) kind of realism, where staged footage is palmed off as real, actors playing real people are not credited, and fake websites are created in order to facilitate fabricated history. By interweaving the dramatised and the pseudo-real only heightens the trappings and limitations of each.

Will Patton as Sheriff August

The audience is lead to believe that the small Alaskan township of Nome has suffered from more alien abductions than anywhere else in the world, and director Osunsanmi is out to prove, with the help of heavily distorted archival footage – just to add that unsettling façade of paranormal interference – that aliens with unpleasant agendas are stealing, molesting, and driving once sane individuals to suicide, and in some cases the humans aren’t even returned, all of which happened to Abigail Tyler’s family. No wonder the poor woman looks like she hasn’t slept a wink.

Hypnotherapy can be such a can of paranormal worms

So what are those choice moments then? I liked the owl (read: Communion) reference/guise, but that was under utilised. The first moment is where “archival footage” shows one of Dr. Tyler’s deeply traumatised patients being hypnotised, and an alien energy hiding within his body decides to expose itself, causing him to emit a blood-curdling scream, his body to levitate, the alien to voice itself in the ancient Sumerian language, and the video picture to go haywire so that the happening is witnessed only partially through white noise and video feedback. The second scene (“archival footage” once again) depicts Dr. Tyler undergoing the same hypnosis herself and being subjected to the ferocious alien energy which turns her face into a grimace, her mouth wide open, trapped in a terrifying scream, the alien saying words such as “ruin” and “destroy” (subtitled for the audience, of course), her body rising violently up off the sofa, yet the whole time the video picture failing to capture the happening with any clarification, yet just enough to send shivers down the audience’s spine.

Seeing is believing ... or is it?

It’s a pity the rest of the movie didn’t possess the same kind of potency as these two moments. “I believe the things I've seen, the presence I've felt inside of me, is beyond anything you can imagine. It was hopelessness. So, it cannot be God, but it can, it can pretend to be,” says the supposed real Dr. Abigail Tyler, her eyes blank, her cheeks sunken, her life-force hollow. The movie ends with character updates informing us that Dr. Tyler’s condition continues to deteriorate, Sheriff August refuses to talk about any of it, Dr. Campos has tenure in another city, yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh, and her son Ronnie (Rafael Coleman), still blames his mother for the disappearance of his sister Ashley (Ashley McKenna-Bruce).

Dr. Tyler has a painful memory invoked through hypnosis

As credits roll so do audio recordings of “actual” 911 calls reporting UFO sightings. Yawn. If you want to watch a decent, supposedly true story about alien abduction (AKA close encounter of the fourth kind), check out Fire in the Sky (1993), at least it doesn’t have the pretentiousness of The Fourth Kind, the acting’s better, and it has a brilliantly staged nightmare revelation sequence near the end.

Look into my eyes ... you're getting sleepy ...

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

13 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

May 5th 2010 01:01

Film & TV on DVD

Bugger me with an anal probe....I thought this one looked cool too. Still intend to check it out sometime because i love me some good alien conspiracy fun.

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2010 02:07

Horrorphile

JD, yeah, real shame too. Check it out on a rainy day or stormy night.

Comment by David O'Connell

May 5th 2010 02:24

20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic

I guess the fact it bypassed cinemas here was a bad sign Bryn (what was the last Jovovich film that didn't come to think of it!?).

A mate of mine at work, who's somewhat of a UFO/conspiracy theory nut actually fell for this, spilling his guts to everyone about how the 'real' footage scared the living crap out of him. As you can imagine, the poor bastard was absolutely gutted when we set him straight!

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2010 02:29

Horrorphile

David ... LOL. The whole movie just smacks of self-importance, with the director even playing himself, interviewing the supposed real Dr. Tyler! The alien possession/levitation scenes are good though, I'll give it that, even if you can't really see much.

Comment by Natalina

May 5th 2010 02:40

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

Thanks for the shout out Bryn

I'm not too surprised that you didn't care for this one. Valid points all around. But I just kinda did. Maybe its the fact that I am just plain terrified by the concept of alien abduction, so most things that allude to it creep me out, but I loved the connection made between the aliens here and their Sumerian counterparts. I am obsessed with tales of the Anunnaki, so the reference made me excited.

I agree that it was pretentious. And the archival footage was obviously not real. And Dr. Tyler's voice grated on me after a while. But with all of its flaws there was one part that just really terrified me and it was the section you mention toward the end where Tyler is sitting on the couch and is pulled away by the unseen force. The Sumerian voice scared the poop out of me, and what it was saying... "Child... mine! I am...God." Man, I must admit I got chills. It worked for me.

Overall, Communion and Fire in the Sky still rank highest for surreal scares on the Abduct-o-meter..but The Fourth Kind was still a guilty pleasure for me. I'd be interested to hear JD's take on it.

Btw... my batting average has been stinking up the joint these days on my recommendations to you! lol

Comment by Matt Shea

May 5th 2010 02:55

Hadeha Bryn - nice review. The world is crying out for a decent 'alien abduction' film. I remember Fire in the Sky being not particularly popular with critics at the time, but at least it got some of the basics right. As for Communion, I think you know my thoughts on that and this doesn't seem to be any better.

Comment by Deni

May 5th 2010 03:30

Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald

Hey Bryn,

Do you have a list of your all time favorite horror movies available somewhere?

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2010 04:57

Horrorphile

Deni, oh how I love that question ...

I have my all-time fave horror movies as a permanent fixture on my Orble profile page, but I also did a post that highlighted them:
MY VERY FAVOURITE NIGHTMARE MOVIES

Here are a few other links to other lists of mine you might like to check out:
50 BEST NIGHTMARES: 2000 - 2009
BEST VAMPIRE AND WEREWOLF MOVIES
BEST ZOMBIE MOVIES
SCARIEST MOVIES EVER MADE
GORIEST MOVIES EVER MADE
and finally
50 HORROR MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE

Of course all of these lists are heavily opinionated, but I like to think I have sound judgment and intelligent taste ... with the odd discrepancy for good trashy measure.

And, don't forget you can always use the search window top left if you're looking for something in particular.

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2010 05:12

Horrorphile

Nat, yeah, the look in her eyes, her mouth agape ... I wish the rest of the movie had possessed the same level of intensity. It's pretentiousness was its undoing. I too am fascinated by the concept (conspiracy theory?) of Sumerian/alien interplay.

Matt, Fire in the Sky has a kind of TV movie feel, but even with those limitations, it's of a much higher calibre than The Fourth Kind.

Comment by Mountain Fog

May 5th 2010 12:00

Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!

Bryn,
what a shame!

It sounds like a complete dog's breakfast, and sloppy Pal at that.

Makes me hope that, if part two Paranormal Activity stands up even better than its predecessor, that Oren Peli takes on the abduction phenomena and shows these fools how its done.

A review that punctures its pomposity perfectly!

cheers

fog

Comment by The Master

May 5th 2010 19:30

Well I honestly liked how they put the "real" footage with it, I do however believe that in many parts of the movie it was watered down by too much emotion like the Sheriff going nuts and trying to pressure Dr. Tyler into saying she is lying and crazy etc,etc, I found his behavior disturbing throughout the whole movie which lent to some of the atmosphere of tension so I guess it served a purpose.

But what I REALLY Fucking hate is how these Fucking Ass Holes went so far to the extreme of trying to dupe everyone into believing this shit was real. I mean at least with Blair Witch and Paranormal activity within 2 minutes of Internet searching you could find these were just Mockumentries (Horror movies presented as real Documentaries) but these guys tried to create as much confusion on the subject as possible and oh@! FYI they are now saying that the
"Real" Dr.Tyler has gone missing LMAO got to admit these Douche bags and their sense of commitment to their own lies. At least they are un-wavering. But I wish they wouldn't try to make it look real because it was a huge disappointment finding out that it was all a lie in the end, yet at the same time a relief.

After all no one wants to believe that something that creepy and fucked up could be real.

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2010 22:35

Horrorphile

Master, I didn't know much about the movie at all when I saw it. I had seen a teaser trailer, and that was it. I didn't realise it was purporting to contain real footage, until I started watching, but within five or so minutes I could tell it was staged with actors. Blair Witch was a lot more convincing. But like I mentioned in my review, the two possession sequences were definitely effective in all their masked glory.

Comment by The Master

May 7th 2010 18:24

Well even from some of the Trailers they claimed it was real. And to this day that Ken Osunsanmi is going around puting things on the Internet to try and make people think it is real.

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