The Fourth Kind ***

It’s difficult to review The Fourth Kind based on how much of it is “real.” While viewing the film, I was amazed at the lengths the filmmakers went to convince us that not only was the story based on actual case studies, but that much of the film had actual audio and video recordings from the supposed real-life cases. 

At the beginning of the movie, actress Milla Jovovich addresses the camera, insisting that what follows is all based on archival footage and testimony. She plays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist living in Nome, Alaska who discovers haunting similarities in her patients’ cases pertaining to owls and repressed memories. In addition to this footage, we see an interview the director taped with the “real” Dr. Tyler that is interspersed throughout the movie, as well as “real” footage of the actual patients during taped therapy sessions and through police video cameras.

The film feels like an episode of 48 Hours Mystery meets 24. Whereas movies like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity claim to be real, no one actually believes that they are, largely because it is quickly revealed that they are actors playing a part. It’s a different story with The Fourth Kind. Not only is the “real” footage ultra-realistic, but it’s also based on UFOs and alien abduction theory, phenomena that have hordes of believers worldwide. Plus, neither the director nor the studio admits that the footage is bogus. I viewed the film before having read any reviews of it, and I was easily convinced that the footage was genuine. Does this make me naïve? Perhaps.

After doing a little investigating (what most people say when they mean “googling”), I found several articles that discredit the film’s authenticity and several more that defend it on the basis that it changed both names and locations, and that is why skeptics could not find any evidence of a real Dr. Tyler. Regardless of its validity, the film is still intriguing. There are some very scary moments—especially if you believe that the video you are watching is real—that include domestic violence and what appears to be some sort of alien possession. It contains at least three sequences I found more disturbing than anything in Paranormal Activity, and they all involved “real” footage. What came to my mind about 10 minutes in was that if what I am watching is a real interview; if these are real therapy sessions; if that is a real police video camera, then why are there actors in this film at all? Shouldn’t this be a thoroughly researched documentary? In my mind, that is probably the best evidence for filmmaking chicanery. But it still entertains.