The Fourth Kind

Movie Grade: C

The term based on a true story is one of the most abused phrases in modern cinema. What doesn’t make sense is that the majority of films are based on true stories or events in one way or another. If they are based loosely on anything they can add that little tagline to the trailer and all of a sudden, drones of non-inquisitive viewers flock to theaters to see the “real” thing in action. More recently, especially in the field of horror, there has been a sub-genre of film that use “actual” footage of the so called true events.

The most recent attempt at creating a faux reality is The Fourth Kind. It is a reenactment of supposedly real events, shown literally alongside real archive footage. Milla Jovovich portrays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a therapist living in Nome, Alaska. After several town’s people come to her with a similar hallucination, Abigail begins to realize that they, as well as herself, have come into contact with something not of this world. Not only has then been contact, but the fourth kind of contact: abduction.

To take down the films biggest bragging point first, there is no evidence to support the claim that there were alien abductions in Nome Alaska, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The Alaskan news outlet suggests that alcoholism, accompanied by Nome’s harsh surrounding landscape have resulted in the number of disappearances and deaths. It also states that Nome’s unsolved deaths are no more common than any other small Alaskan town. Without the true story validity, it doesn’t leave the movie hopeless. Most films of this sub-genre have the same issue and manage to make it work.

In the very beginning the film breaks the fourth wall and has Milla Jovovich address the audience directly, explaining that the movie is a dramatisation of actual events with “real” footage used within it. This idea seems brilliant in theory, but flops in execution. The footage is shown in split screen with the cinematic version which would have worked if it was always this way, but when archive footage would come on it would constantly switch sides, and when there was more then one peace of footage the screen would split four ways to show the different angels. It becomes frustrating to have to look at four different interpretations of a scene at once. Even more bothersome is when it would just be archive footage with subtitles because the subtitles weren’t over the footage, they were off to the side. Instead of being able to watch and read, you have to choose between one or the other, and have to lose out no matter what.

It isn’t just the movie’s innovation that becomes its worst enemy. Its characters also have a habit of destroying the little sense of realism the film had

left. No one’s actions seemed genuine and characters like Abigail’s son who was like a cookie-cutter of every disobedient child. Even worse than him was Sheriff August (Will Patton) who is constantly threatening Abigail with unlawful legal action. He tries to arrest her for putting a man under hypnosis without his consent, he puts her under house arrest for no reason; and he takes away her son without any sort of cause, besides her daughter going missing. None of this makes any sense and it is all topped off with the touch of him always being uncontrollably angry; making the interrogation scenes hilarious.

The one thing that the movie did right was the shock scenes. Before anything of a fantastic nature would happen, the cinematic footage would go blank and we would be left with scrambled archive footage. This shows just enough so that people know whatever is happening is something out of the ordinary, but leaves them guessing as to what is really going on. It also makes it look more realistic because any sort of bad effects will be covered up by the distortion in the image.

For every good quality, there is something to keep it from truly flourishing. Even though most of the shock footage was done well, the cinematic take on Abigail’s abduction was like something out of a late 90′s heavy metal music video. Smart techniques, like breaking the fourth wall, are reuined by cheesy spinning camera angels that make the actors seem like they are standing on a carousel in the woods. Despite the fact that there were several moments that had people frightened, the film doesn’t deliver on any other fronts. With all of the potential it had, there isn’t much worth watching in this one.

Movie Grade: C

Synopsis:

Fact-based thriller involving an ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up.