Creepy Critic: ‘The Fourth Kind’ Review
October 29, 2009 by Alison
I was able to catch an early screening of Universal Pictures’ The Fourth Kind in New York City last 
weekend and have been avoiding writing my review since then. There were parts of the movie that I found absolutely frightening but the film’s gimmicky technique was completely distracting which left me annoyed and disappointed.
‘The fourth kind’ is a term used to describe an alien abduction. The film is set in modern day Nome, Alaska where supposedly since the 1960’s, a large number of the population is reported missing every year. Milla Jovovich plays psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler who began videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and discovered evidence of alien abduction in the process. Abductees share disturbingly identical details about their alien encounters and soon she is forced to face some chilling facts in the wake of a personal tragedy and in a town where no one wants to believe her.
Director Olatunde Osunsanmi, who also happens to star in the film, uses a split screen technique to show ‘archival footage’ side by side with a reenactment played out by lead actors Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton and Hakeem Kae-Kazim. Many people have been discussing the validity of these claims and one has to wonder why Osunsanmi went to such great lengths to concoct such a story when anyone who does a little research can easily find out that the ‘true story’ is complete fiction. This distraction ruined my enjoyment of the film’s scarier parts which were somewhat of a pleasant surprise compared to other alien abduction flicks I have seen. Osunsanmi takes the ‘less is more’ approach when it comes to the actual aliens and instead chooses to use sound and language as the main attraction.
Equally distracting were the performances. When I wasn’t straining to hear what the ‘real’ Abigail Tyler was mumbling, I was holding back my laughter at the sideshow performance of Will Patton who plays Nome’s sheriff. As much as I love Milla, her performance felt uninspired and unconvincing, especially during the more emotional scenes. Kae-Kazim wasn’t in the film long enough to make any great impression and Elias Koteas must have traded roles with Patton (who I really do like!). His underwhelming performance didn’t showcase any of his amazing ability or range leaving me to wonder why Osunsanmi included him in the film in the first place. I keep hoping Koteas will work with David Cronenberg or Atom Egoyan again–a girl can dream.
If you can avoid being distracted by the irritating split screen technique and Unsolved Mysteries feel there may be a few scares here that really get to you. Aside from that, it’s just an ok film that may have a hard time holding its own next another ‘true story’ flick that is blowing everyone away–Paranormal Activity. The Fourth Kind opens in theaters November 6.
Image: Universal Pictures
I’ve read a number of reviews on this film and while they all bash the film for mixing genres ineffectively, annoying editing, and horrible acting (none of which I disagree with entirely), none of them examine to any length the real issue- are the ‘real’ videos and audio tapes actually real? If they’re not, then yes it’s fraudulent what the director did, if they are real, it’s an extremely compelling movie. If the videos are real, it would be nearly impossible to be at least intrigued and to varying degrees, scared by them. Personally, I feel if they didn’t include the ‘real’ videos the film would have been far less dramatic and frightening because you at least feel like it’s real based on how the film presents it and if they only used the ‘real’ footage, it wouldn’t have told the story properly and would have been imcomplete because of the real footage we can assume was available. She didn’t videotape her whole life. Making her personal life seem real by giving it the paranormal activity documentary type effect would have been more than contrived. So I beg someone to show me concrete evidence that 1. The videos are fake or 2. The videos are real. Moreover, if the videos are real, comparing Paranormal Activity which is a fiction story masquerading as a doc (at least they tell you it’s not true) is just a comparison lacking any critical thought. Thanks.
Michael–thanks for your comment. I don’t think I bashed the film but I was critical of its elements. All gossip about the ‘true story’ stuff aside, the film needs to be addressed in terms of the acting, plot, etc.
You may want to read this write up by a colleague of mine that discusses the ‘evidence’ shown in the movie. He raises some good points. http://www.scifisquad.com/2009/11/05/sci-fi-science-whats-the-real-truth-behind-the-fourth-kind/
It’s my belief that the videos are not real as I state in my review. A little Internet research and digging around led me to that conclusion. I agree that going into the film with the idea that these COULD be real is probably more compelling and that’s why i avoided doing much research before going to see it. However, many elements in the movie give this away. For instance, would they really show footage of an actual murder-suicide in a PG-13 movie? Probably not.
Lastly, my comment at the end of the review is not a detailed comparison of the two films. Both ARE being pushed as ‘real’ stories. While ‘The Fourth Kind’ pushes that on the viewer, Oren Peli leaves it up to the viewer to decide if it’s real or not within the actual film. I was simply making a comment about both movies being marketed in the same genre, documentary-horror
This was one of the worst movies ever shown.It will be put with the the other junk movies(blair witch hunt,clover field,the day earth stood still#2war of the worlds #2).These movies were total rip offs and should never be allowed to be shown.How can Hollywood allow this trash!They need to make high Quality sci fys on line with Independence Day!The Day the world stood still original version and War of the worlds original versions were superior classics and should not of been changed.
Hollywood is killing the future of science fiction movies by allowing this kind of low budget junk on movie screens.I’ll never take another chance on one and will just wait and spend a dollar when they come out on video.Blair Witch Hunt,The Day World Stood Still,War of the Worlds And now this junk 4th kind should be banned from all video stores!
hahah it wasn’t THAT bad but it wasn’t great. are you angry about the Blair Witch sequel ?