The Fourth Kind (2009): Hollywood Tries Too Hard

Oh how I wanted this film to be the disturbing experience it promised to be, but I knew better.  It’s SPOILER FREE, so read on before you make your trip to the cinema in November.

As Screamfest’s closing night movie, The Fourth Kind screening I attended was full of excitable genre fans. People were amped up to see the movie—hoping that maybe, just maybe Universal could capture some of the same chills that Paranormal Activity has just unleashed. While it is not entirely a found footage film, it claims to have incorporated actual archived footage and audio of certain events. And they try a bit too hard to convince us this is real. How far do they take it?

Milla upon learning that she was abducted by the filmmakers and brainwashed into believing the film is based on real events.

You may have seen a trailer that features Milla Jovovich announcing herself as an actress portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler in the upcoming film, which presents content that is solely based on facts and evidence. This wasn’t a promotional bit created for trailers. Unfortunately, this is the first scene of the film. Really, guys, really? In fact, the whole approach to the film is one giant reenactment. It intercuts stylized cinematics with an interview between the film’s director, Olatunde Osunsanmi, and the “real” Dr. Tyler. It even goes as far as to show the reenactment and the “actual” footage at the same time, using a split screen technique. While The Fourth Kind’s documentary-found-footage-reenactment blend is unique and fresh, it is ultimately more distracting and haughty than anything else.

I believe in aliens, but I don't believe in you Milla.

This is truly a shame because The Fourth Kind had the potential to be just as scary as Paranormal. Firstly, alien abduction stories have always frightened me. I can see why the director was encouraged to mimic shows like Sightings. As a kid, I always found that show to be disturbing, especially when the reenactments were not overdone and when it focused on interviews with truly convincing people. However, the world of the narrative feature film is much different. The filmmakers didn’t want to make an episode of Sightings, didn’t want to rely on found footage like Blair Witch, and didn’t want to portray a seamless fictional world of alien abduction. So they combine all three. The mixed medium and mixed style approach really hurts the film, which admittedly does have some frightening moments. The archival footage is the highlight of the film. One scene made me jump more than I can remember from any other film. The use of “actual” audio and “actual” video are so scary that it makes the reenactments and the interview with Dr. Tyler seem unfulfilling. If the film had been entirely made of found footage and executed in the right way, it could have been amazing. It also had the same opportunity to astound me if it was filmed in a straight, classic cinematic approach but with a different methodology. What it really comes to down to is that the fourth wall is broken so much, it loses any suspension of disbelief and therefore, loses impact.

One of the most chilling performances in the film.

Technically, the film has a slick Hollywood feel. The cinematography is serviceable, but it lacks creative cohesion. Overexposed, white-flaring flashbacks are so old by now and do not suit the tone of the rest of the film, which is asking us to believe what we are seeing is real. With Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Paton leading the cast, you expect to see some decent acting at the very least. Decent is probably the best way to describe their shallow, unpolished performances. They’re not bad, but they’re definitely not running on all cylinders. Rarely do I mention production design in a film, but it really was bothersome in this film. When looking at the archival footage and the reenactment, I couldn’t help but point out that both scenes were most likely shot in the exact same location (maybe just a different part of the room or with different set dressing). If you are trying to get people to believe that the footage is real, then don’t make it so painfully obvious that it is not. I’m not usually one to be nit-picky about these details (especially since it was probably a budgetary decision in part), but you can’t expect me not to compare the locations when you show the reenactment and archival footage back to back or side by side. Another hint about realism… If you’re filming a fact-based thriller that is situated in Nome, Alaska. Maybe you should film at least part of the movie there, even if it’s just an aerial shot or two. Don’t show images of a random Bulgarian city that looks nothing like Nome. It’s kind of like filming a sky-scraper-packed New York  city and claiming it’s Los Angeles.

Above: The film's portrayal of Nome; Below: The real Nome.
Photos and a great article courtesy of Rural Alaska blog: The Village.

All of these flaws do show the signs of an inexperienced director, as well as the oversight of studios that don’t care about the details. Part of me feels bad for saying this because Olatunde Osunsanmi went to the same film school as me at Chapman University. That also explains why the rather imposing title is shown so prominently in the trailer and throughout the film. I remember one of my good friends had worked on Osunsanmi’s first feature film, WithIN (The Cavern), and one of my professors was paid to do sound work on it during post-production. My desire to see a truly scary alien abduction film and my alma matter connection were giving this film the benefit of every doubt. It truly is a marketable, clever concept, but I’m afraid the execution and unevenness of storytelling prevented it from prevailing as a great horror film. Instead of being the unique take of the genre it should have been, it is a slicked out Hollywood concoction that patronizes its audience but is not completely without scary rewards.