The Fourth Kind
Starring:
Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Running
time: 98 minutes
Year:
2009
Directed
By: Olatunde
Osunsanmi
Written
By: Olatunde
Osunsanmi
As I sat down to watch this film I had a
preconception of what it was going to be like, but I didn't expect the film to
be portrayed in the way it was, so without much knowledge of the film I was
surprised to see what it really was. I knew that it was a film based around the
notion of alien abduction, and I had seen the trailers which stated that the
first kind is sighting a UFO; the second kind is evidence of alien beings, the
third kind is contact with them, and the fourth kind is abduction. After this I
was well aware that alien abduction would be the focal point of the film, but
like I said it was told in a way I was not expecting at all.
The movie starts with Milla Jovovich on screen,
identifying herself as Milla Jovovich. She states that she will be playing Dr
Abigail Tyler who is a psychologist in Nome, Alaska who has experienced an
alien encounter. We are then taken to an interview with the director of the
film, Osunsanmi, and the real life Dr Tyler. From there on we are told her
story via her interview interspersed with the reconstruction starring Jovovich,
and actual footage and recordings taken at the time of the encounter. The
overall story is about residents of Nome seeing a strange owl at night, which
stares them out and keeps them awake. They all head to see Dr Tyler and when
she hypnotises them in order to dig deeper she opens a part of their memory
which was meant to be left undiscovered. Once this has taken place the patients
go on to experience terrible accidents or commit terrible crimes, meaning the
blame is soon to come back on Dr Tyler. When she also begins to see the owl she
soon understands that the residents of the town are being abducted by aliens
and have their memory of it wiped, only for it to become discovered via the
hypnosis. After Dr Tyler witnesses the alien beings she is ridiculed by the
local Sheriff and is labelled a suspect in the disappearance of other patients
of hers who have seen this owl. Despite her close friend and a language expert
believing and witnessing her alien encounter she still struggles to convince
the Sheriff of her ordeal, even after her daughter is abducted by the aliens.
I quite liked the way
this film was told. It is like the film is a cross between a narrative, a
documentary, and a reconstruction. This is what makes it kind of unique in this
found footage formula. It does label itself as a true story and people may
chose to believe it is, but I for one was not convinced and I'm sure I have
read articles that it is all a hoax. Despite that though the way the film was
presented made me believe up until the credits rolled. (One reason it was
obvious it was fake however was when people seemed to record everything they
done in the same position as the 'found footage' was shot). The reason I was
engrossed in it and believed in the fiction of it all was because of the
performances of the actors in the 'found footage'. It is really as if they are
actual people telling their story. Like I said a couple of things make it
obvious it is fake but some of the mystery and the believability in the footage
parts do make you question the truth of it all.
The film is edited with
many split screens which mirrors up the 'found footage' with the reconstruction
narrative and it is interesting to see how similar they are and told word for
word. This editing is also used when hearing video recordings or telephone
conversations. This way of editing just added something to the feel of the
movie. It is difficult to establish the genre of it but I think the way it is
presented seems to invent its own kind of genre. The 'found footage' was
believable and some was frightening, and on the other hand the reconstructions
were spot on to what we would believe and the performances are good. The interview
between the 'real' Dr Tyler is so well done that you need to search for the
points that discredit it.
All in all it was a
fairly good film, something different to what you would normally see with this
sort of plot. There are moments which ruin it such as the music plastered over
the top of the reconstruction, which does discredit the believability of it,
however don't listen to the critics who have slated it, it isn't that bad. It
will never win any awards but there is something fresh about the way it is
told, and real or not it still had me jumping and hiding behind the covers.
3
/ 5
Next film to review: BURN AFTER READING
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