the 4th Kind Review

Written by: MistressOf Horror   

Here's the basis of the movie  Since the 1960's there have been an unusual number of disappearances in Nome, Alaska.  Sure, lots of people think these things are the fault of suicide, alcoholism and accidents in the wilderness.  Dr. Abigail Tyler, a recently widowed psychiatrist in the area believes it might be something else.  Using hypnosis, she discovers that her most disturbed patients all seem to have similar visions.  An owl that is not an owl waking them up at 3:33 am.  (By the way, I have woken up at that exact time for the past few mornings.  No owl, but my neighbor's cat staring at me is just as disconcerting.) 

And they all have violent reactions to the memories.  She begins to believe that these people may have been abducted by aliens. What we see is a re-enactment of the story along with the supposed footage of actual events. (In case you were wondering, the title is in reference to the 1972 scale of measurement.  An alien encounter of the first kind is a UFO sighting. The second kind is evidence.  The third is contact.  And the fourth kind is abduction.  The film begins with Milla Jovovich telling the audience that she'll be portraying Tyler and that the archival footage of her work and interviews is real.  It's really not important whether or not you believe that.   We are shown the footage and the re-creation at the same time, often with Tyler and Jovovich/Tyler speaking the same lines simultaneously. 

When the story goes deeper into Tyler's experiences, Jovovich is on screen alone.  The through-line of the story is provided by footage of an interview that Tyler gave to Olatunde Osunsanmi (the film's writer and director).   The interview shows Abigail getting more and more rattled as she starts to crack from the grief over her husband's death and the fear that this might be happening to her too. his movie actually disturbed me. I know of alot of people who will say this movie is lame, but  I found it entertaining and disturbing at the same time. The kind of movie that gets you thinking and looking up at the stars at night.