Film Review: The Fourth Kind

THE REAL FOOTAGE IS FAKE.

That is the equivalent in reading my review terms of how long it took me to realise the 'real life footage' in The Fourth Kind was, in fact, nothing of the sort. It was acted, and to make things more annoying about it all, badly acted. Worse than the 'acted' portion of the film, sadly.

Anyway, let us backtrack a moment so I can tell you what the film is about. We open with Milla Jovovich introducing herself as herself, and she informs us she will be playing the 'real life' character of Dr. Abbey Tyler. Dr. Tyler, you understand has had some kind of alien abduction happen to her, and several of her patients. This is 'supported' by interview footage with the movies director Olatunde Osunsamni interviewing the 'real life' Dr. Tyler (and I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but she is played by ACTRESS Charlotte Milchard).

The whole concept is a good idea but falls flat on it's arse for a few reasons. Firstly, it came out in 2009. The whole world has the information at it's fingertips to instantly debunk the 'real footage' as rubbish. There are cases of abduction in Nome, Alaska (where the movie is set), but none of the characters portrayed in the film existed. After watching the film it took me all of 30 seconds to see fact of that. Maybe if they had tried this sort of thing in the eighties it would have worked better (but they would have still needed better actors).

There is a lot of 'real police footage' shown also, and at one point its shows (slightly blurred) a man shooting his wife in the head, then shooting himself. Now I'm pretty sure that the authorities don't release that type of footage, what with the law and everything. I think it probably extends to cautionary shots of drunks on 'Worlds Craziest Drivers', this however would border on snuff.

And some of the stuff does seem pulled out of nowhere, like the mysterious owls that look at you before you get abducted, which I am convinced is because owls sometimes can creep people out a bit when they keep looking at you.

To it's credit, the film does have a couple of decent moments. The moments when characters are possessed by the alien force and sit bolt upright, and the cameras go funny, is quite effective. It would be more effective if they weren't trying to make you believe it was all real, though. I'd have liked to have seen just a film about this, because on paper it's a good idea, but in reality with all it's purported 'real life footage' (performed by an amateur dramatics society) it all just strikes me as a Blair Witch Project for very thick people.

*1/2

A half star added for the creative idea, but put out in the wrong decade, when anyone with a laptop and a spare minute can instantly debunk the film as utter bobbins, which is what it is.