For decades now, we’ve wrestled with the controversial and frightening mystery of alien abductions. We’ve debated until we’re blue in the face about the concept of life outside of planet Earth. The one facet of this entire scientific, cultural and philosophical circus that remains arguably missing is that of solid, undeniable proof. This “missing link” so to speak, is what THE FOURTH KIND attempts to be in the hearts and minds of it’s viewers. Unfortunately, the film fails on almost every level, leaving the audience potentially more skeptical and cynical than they were upon entering the theater.
THE FOURTH KIND was written and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi (WithIN) and is presented as a sort of part archival footage, part reenactment presentation of first-hand accounts of the strange and unexplained occurrences that have allegedly plagued the remote, far northern town of Nome, Alaska. The director himself inserts himself into the film in a very unconventional way, appearing in clips of an interview with the “real life” Dr. Abbey Emily Tyler, whom tells her story of uncovering a dark and dangerous secret hiding deep within subconscious minds of the citizens of Nome.
Milla Jovovich (RESIDENT EVIL) plays Dr. Abbey Tyler in the re-enactments. By the way, all of the character names in THE FOURTH KIND are aliases, except for Dr. Abbey Emily Tyler, whom I Googled along with Nome Alaska abductions and found, well… you decide. There’s really not much that can be said about hers or any of the other performances in the film, which are not terrible but certainly not memorable in any way. Elias Koteas (ZODIAC) intrigued me, not because of his performance, but because of his role as fellow psychologist Abel. Koteas recently played a priest whom just happened to be well-versed in the occult in the “based on true events” film THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT. In this film, Koteas plays a psychologist skeptical of alien encounters and UFOs. This trend makes me curious regarding his own stance on the unexplained, just out of pure curiosity.
The majority of THE FOURTH KIND is shot as a reenactment of both recorded psychiatric therapy sessions and first-hand accounts. I am reminded of the popular television series UNSOLVED MYSTERIES when I think about the visual approach to these reenactments. Melodramatic scenes with the visual flair of a daytime soap opera. The films attempts to present itself seriously, but the problem with this is that the current trend is to present a story that appears real, but most likely is not, yet we’re left to wonder. Most of the time, this is done either with the fully found footage approach (i.e. BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, CLOVERFIELD, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) or as a straight away reenactment, making it’s disclaimer very clear that it is based on a “true” story or “actual” events, such as with THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT or THE EXORCIST.
I do have to applaud Osunsanmi for stepping out of the box and trying something new, but with that said, trying something new does not guarantee it will be successful. The direction, particularly of the performances, falls flat and unbelievable. As far as THE FOURTH KIND being shocking or scary, only one scene moderately succeeds and getting a rise out of the audience, but is done so primarily through jump tactics (i.e. an unexpected and sudden event that catches the audience off guard). The handful of found footage accounts, aside from interview clips with Dr. Tyler, are the only semi-realistic elements in the movie and with today’s imagination and technology, it’s more difficult than ever to differentiate between truth and fiction.
On more than one occasion, the audience is directly addressed and asked to take what they see in THE FOURTH KIND and make their own decisions. This is a tactic that fully and detrimentally pulls the audience out of the story and only re-enforces the the involuntary defense mechanism of the human mind to discount the unknown of which we usually fear. I do not classify myself as a believer or a skeptic, but remain open to the unknown being a question of probability, rather than a question of possibility. One of the clear messages in the film is that these “non-human intelligences” are not very nice.
We often consider how, in a universe so vast and potentially infinite, our planet could be the only celestial rock that houses life. What we rarely consider is what sentient life outside of our planet may be like. In science-fiction, the idea of aliens being overwhelmingly more intelligent than ourselves is common place, but their ethical or moral nature remains a less pertinent subject. Playing the devil’s advocate, I simply ask that you look around at what we have and continue to do to each other and propose the question… If we can do such horrible things to each other and ourselves, are other sentient lifeforms not capable of the same, or worse?”
I am rambling a bit, but I do so to make a point. The only truly engaging element in THE FOURTH KIND the the idea, the concept behind the story. Otherwise, the movie is rather boring and uneventful. The characters are difficult to empathize with, although the Sheriff of Nome (played by Will Patton) is pretty easy to dislike. For a film that is supposedly based on true events and actual archival audio and video recordings, a great deal of the dialogue is a bit hard to swallow. In fact, the whole film is a tough horse pill to swallow as anything more than attempted shock value, but it does raise an interesting subject of debate that hasn’t been tackled in the cinema since FIRE IN THE SKY and COMMUNION, both of which were far more believable and engaging films that truly make a viewer think about the possibilities.
Overall, there’s not much in THE FOURTH KIND to justify spending today’s hard earned dollars at the theater. Those who enjoy films that ask “is this true or not” will likely be disappointed. Fans of conspiracy theory may be slightly less disappointed, but the random selected episode of THE X-FILES will prove far more satisfying. The most unfortunate thing about THE FOURTH KIND is that it’s box office could have been modestly helped if the film had been released prior to PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, which has truly set the bar high in the broader genre of found-footage films of the unexplained.
