“The Fourth Kind” opens in a truly unique way, with lead actress Milla Jovovich speaking directly to the camera, and explaining that the proceeding events are real. Jovovich announces she will be playing real life doctor Abigail Tyler in a dramatization of events that occurred in October, 2000 in the rural outskirts of Nome, Alaska (a supposed haven of real life UFO abductions).
In 2009, the genre of found footage was exploding onto the scene with the success of “Paranormal Activity.” To differ itself, “The Fourth Kind” goes out of its way to explain that you are actually witnessing real life events. We see footage of Jovovich as Dr. Tyler displayed simultaneously with the “real” Abigail Tyler giving an interview about the events in Nome with Chapman University.
Its an interesting direction by writer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and one that makes “The Fourth Kind” good and bad at the same time. Its good because it puts the viewer in the mindset that the events are in fact real. Its bad because most people know that its just a movie, and because of the purported reality of it, the scares are too few and far between and the movie ends in a sort of head scratching way.
Abigail Tyler is a psychologist and widowed mother of two small children. Dr. Tyler has recently been through the trauma of dealing with the death of her husband. As she is seeing patients, she notices a similarity; multiple patients have reported the same eerie dream of an owl watching them through their bedroom window at night. As Dr. Tyler continues to probe her patients, she is led to the possibility of something far more terrifying.
With the found footage pioneer “The Blair Witch Project” we watch through the lens of a camcorder. “Paranormal Activity” shows us the same as the camera is mounted to catch supernatural occurrences. In “The Fourth Kind” we see a mixture of ways to tell us the story.
There’s the “real” footage of Dr. Tyler (Charlotte Milchard) giving her interview to Chapman University. Police recordings, the dashboard camcorder of a cop car, and the audio tapes of the doctor herself are dispersed as well. The purported staged dramatization featuring Jovovich as Dr. Tyler is also mixed in for an interesting display of progression.
Jovovich is great in the role of Dr. Tyler. The look of intrigue and fear as she slowly discovers the ambiguous events in the Alaskan town is perfectly creepy. She’s a relateable character, and one that brings depth and a good back story with her.
Thespian Will Patton is a perfect choice to counter as the Nome police chief, Sheriff August. Sheriff August is a hardened rural sort who wants nothing to do with the idea of UFO’s and alien abduction. “I don’t deal in hallucinations and visions in the ether.” He chastises Dr. Tyler. “I deal in real life flesh and blood.” Patton is a perfect representation of a small town cop.
“The Fourth Kind” has a handful of scary parts; I really liked the sepia drenched camera footage and the distorted recording devices that take place when “events” are happening. But there’s just not enough to keep you glued. It relies more on suspense and feigned notion that the events are factual. I agree if what was happening was in fact real, I would be terrified but since it’s a movie it misses a bit.
by – Matt Christopher
