The Fourth Kind [DVD] (2009)

Milla Jovovich is both a wise choice and a destabilising choice as the actress who plays Dr Abigail Tyler in this alleged reacreation of true events. Why? She does Tyler a lot of favours by giving a very convincing performance, portraying a calm, professional psychologist who's starting to question reality as insane events begin to mount up around her. The film intercuts Jovovich's acted segments with some replays of ostensibly 'real' footage starring the real Tyler during the same events. The clips of Tyler, however, show a much more unsteady-voiced, on-edge character who's clearly already suffering severe self-confidence issues long before Jovovich's version begins to fracture under pressure. I felt that maybe a less self-assured actress who could portray nerves and instability better would have made a more accurate choice.
In showing the events in the isolated Alaskan town where an apparently disproporionate number of people have been vanishing since the '60s, the film-makers are both inviting us to judge whether it's due to the alien abductions that Tyler claims, or whether the spaceman argument is hockum. Not enough alternatives are allowed to be put forward to give a balanced argument, but the film's main purpose is to entertain so that's not surprising. As a result the film-makers don't undermine their central plotline by suggesting that anything other than aliens could be to blame. It's all done very well, with the tension ratcheting up to very high levels, and many creepy freakout moments and unexplained phenomena. Especially impressive are the moments when the 'original' archive footage appears to show some truly hard-to-explain events. However, equally, I found it horrendously morally offensive that they appear to have left in real-life footage of a real killing - this was unacceptable for me in an entertainment thriller as it reeked of tasteless exploitation. However I kept watching, and the film is very impressive and handled believably as the tension ramps up to panic levels and things seem to spin out of control. The climax is very impressive, and there's an interesting dissection of 'is this true or not' afterwards, which I felt both helped and harmed the film's credibility in equal measure. Judge for yourself. It's a creepy and interesting ride.

The Fourth Kind is a creepy film that will certainly result in some viewers having a restless night (particularly around 3.33 am)! So from that perspective the film is a success - it leaves the audience feeling unsettled, disturbed, possibly even scared. Three stars so for being a proficient addition to the niche.

The plot follows psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, who starts to realise that a number of patients with sleep problems seem to be having the same dream or vision. Since the patients are unable or unwilling to remember the details of this vision, the good Doctor decides to use hypnotism to extract any suppressed memories and obligingly records the results on video camera for later study. Needless to say, the uncovered memories are not of happy times ... hence the 'Fourth Kind' alien-abduction tag!

Where TFK is clever is that it has been marketed as a reenactment of actual events that were captured on film and audio tape. What we see then is the occasional juxtaposition of acted movie (with Milla Jovovich as Dr. Tyler) and the real camera and audio footage supposedly taken by Dr. Tyler herself. Although some have said they found this annoying, I personally felt that it added to the film and gave it a slightly more authentic feel. That, in turn, made it creepier.

As to the debate on whether it's real or not ... em, it's a film!

Gimmicky rubbish which pulls all its punchs. A criminal waste of the tallents of its leading lady, Milla Yovovich. Alternating the recreation of events with interviews of the "real life" participants fatally undermines the film. Without a doubt, the worst alien abduction movie I have ever seen.