Alien abductions, government coverups, and ordinary people caught up in all of this sounds like a good premise for a movie. The Fourth Kind is a science fiction movie supposedly based on true events. It even uses a pseudo-documentary style to explore Abigail Tyler’s strange experiences. It’s watchable, especially if you like this sort of stuff. And if you do, play the movie now and then read the following text.
.
.
.
.
Now let us begin. This movie could be awesome, but a few things got in the way. The first one of them is Paranormal Activity, with a similar style of directing and storytelling, so comparisons are inevitable. And in all of them, The Fourth Kind loses, and I didn’t even like Paranormal Activity. Next up is the “based on true events” premise. This time I believe that nothing that we saw in the movie is true or even remotely true. They made everything up including the “actual” footage, news articles, and the rest of the stuff.
What makes this whole thing even more perplexing is the fact that there are cases like this. Cases featuring a similar style of abductions, regression, and hypnosis. Some of them have multiple witnesses or even pictures. Berkshires UFO case is just one of them although it deviates from the narrative somewhat. And the whole waking up at 3.15 thing is clearly a reference to the Devil’s or Witching hour.
And what really bugs me is this attitude of the director to make this a testimony of the events that happened, in the beginning of the movie the actors tell us that the story is true and bla bla. The studio was sued for fabricating news and sites to promote the event as true. Anyway, enough of the bashing, let’s get back to the movie that I think would be a huge success if it has been done as an actual movie and not in this movie/documentary style.
The story centers on the Alien abductions in a small town in Alaska and the consequences of them. As far as the “movie” parts of the flick everything is good, the suspense, action, and the sinister vibe, but the documentary part is kind of annoying since it is not actual footage.
Furthermore, just check out this thing: The movie’s hoaxed interviews have angered the families of real missing persons in and around Nome, Alaska, for trivializing their loss. Melanie Edwards, Vice President of Kawerak Inc. (an organization representing tribal peoples in Alaska), described the movie as “insensitive to family members of people who have gone missing in Nome over the years”. Universal has refused to discuss the movie with that organization or with local journalists.
Finally, let’s discuss the real aliens: us. After reading one of the reviews, I did some digging and found a perfectly logical explanation for most of the movie. Police officers also came to the same conclusion. It would appear that the eternal winter can fuck up your life. Mostly because you are more likely to drink and do drugs. So, add to this crippling depression and high suicide rate and all these disappearances are actually health-care-related issues.
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Writers: Olatunde Osunsanmi, Terry Robbins
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Will Patton, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Corey Johnson, Elias Koteas
Fun Stuff: The end credits do not include the usual “The events and persons depicted in this film are fictitious…”. Also “The film is based on the real events…” section is missing.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220198/
