The title and tagline of The Fourth Kind tells us of the existence of four kinds of alien encounters. This may come as a surprise to some, who thought that Richard Dreyfuss’ being shepherded aboard a spaceship in the desert by little men with big heads was about as close as you could possibly come to meeting extra terrestrials.
But apparently we were wrong. A quick check of the internet gospel (Wikipedia) reveals a whopping 7 (seven) kinds of alien encounter. The first being a sighting. The second is alien observation. The third involves observation of ‘animate beings’ in relation to a UFO (whatever that means). The fourth, and the one of interest here, is human abduction by said aliens.
Comically, the fifth kind purports to be consensual, regular interaction with alien beings (Christmas, birthdays presumably). However, you’re only one painful step away from the sixth kind, which is tragically classified as anyone killed as a result of an alien encounter. And, finally, the seventh kind is a human-alien hybridisation; something which, on inspection, the movie industry has already extracted enough mileage from (think Johnny Depp in The Astronaut's Wife, or Sigourney Weaver’s last outing as Ripley in Alien: Resurrection for example).
The Fourth Kind - The Set Up (and this really is a set-up)
Once it’s established that we’re dealing with alien abduction, as an audience you’re then put through the frankly ridiculous notion that The Fourth Kind is actually based on a true story. This is something that director Olatunde Osunsanmi (who penned the screenplay also) assumes will be all the more palatable if he and star Milla Jovovich appear as themselves on camera and explain this to us. It isn’t.
Jovovich is representing Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist, who - after the fatal stabbing of her husband (also a psychologist) while at home in their bed one evening – took it upon herself to continue the research her partner was conducting on several residents of the Alaskan town of Nome.
The subjects have been haunted by strange night time visions, almost dreamlike experiences, and in a bid to retain certain events have requesting hypnosis sessions with Dr. Tyler. During regression it appears that each vision is linked by one common experience - the haunting sighting of an owl outside each victim’s bedroom window. Symbolic of some kind of extra terrestrial activity? Supposedly. Dr. Tyler aims to get to the source, convinced that the answer somehow holds the key to her husband’s murder.
Narrative Structure of The Fourth Kind
The real Abigail Tyler appears on screen relatively early, depicted in interview with the film’s director. This is a technique that’s used throughout the film in order to force home the point (as if we hadn’t picked it up already) that this in fact is a REAL story (honest). However it’s something that would be mildly effective had the actress playing the supposedly ‘real’ Abigail Tyler not been such a woeful actor. Even director Osunsanmi’s seems slightly uncomfortable playing himself while conducting the interview. His sheepish expression at Abigail’s strained description of her alien encounters is a dead giveaway that we’re having our legs pulled.
Abigail’s story is told retrospectively with a mixture of archive interviews and footage of her hypnosis sessions with Nome’s alien-stalked residents. In unison we’re also presented with dramatised reconstructions starring Jovovich (as Tyler) and the people that influenced her story. Abigail’s gradual decline from doting mother and consummate professional to a dishevelled wreck of a woman on the brink of mental breakdown is a little fanciful to say the least.
A split screen approach is employed to throughout much of the film, showing us the real footage alongside the reconstruction. It’s a technique that only serves, once more, to convince us of the story’s authenticity (ok we get the message!) and at regular intervals the plot is interrupted with excerpts from Tyler’s interview with Osunsanmi.
What is glaringly obvious is that there seems to be so much archive footage of the events that surely this story, if as true as the creators make out, would have been better off as a documentary rather than a feature film. Regretfully it may also have been more entertaining.
The Fourth Kind – Poorly Executed
The Fourth Kind borrows heavily from the strategy of 1999 indie hit The Blair Witch Project, whose reliance on unknown actors, camcorder footage and fake websites professing the Blair Witch’s existence formed a clever and (importantly) unique approach to marketing a movie. The simple fact is, cinema audiences are now wary of the same technique and reluctant to be fooled by a second time, especially by such a poorly orchestrated joke.
Asking an audience to buy into the notion that a small Alaskan town has been blighted by a series of alien abductions – a fact that the world has so far overlooked - is just plain stupid. It’s easy to get more than a little annoyed watching this film’s half-baked approach.
While there’s nothing particularly wrong with Jovovich or Elias Koteas (who plays Abel, a fellow psychologist who aids Dr. Tyler in her quest to convince the local authorities of the aliens’ existence) the actors portraying the ‘real’ characters are so poor that they seriously denigrate any creativity or sense of unease that Jovovich or director Osunsanmi create throughout the reconstructions. The ability to give a naturalistic performance is quite clearly beyond them.
Seriously have a re-think if you’re about to pay to watch this movie. Only take the plunge if you’re seriously bored, stupid or want to be convinced of your own ability as an actor.
Verdict: 1/5
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