The Fourth Kind: Worse Than The Abduction

I am not a horror movie fan, so imagine my dismay when at the beginning of The Forth Kind comes the warning that some scenes are ‘quite disturbing.’ Luckily, The Forth Kind is not a horror movie; unfortunately, it’s not a good one either.

The Fourth Kind stars Milla Jovovich portraying Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist who, driven by the murder of her husband seeks to unravel the mysterious disappearances in a small town of Alaska. After several of her patients recall a haunting similarity to their dreams, Dr. Abigail determines to find out who, or what, is terrorizing the residents of Nome, Alaska. All events, we are told by a subdued Jovovich in the opening segment, are based on “fact.” From there, we are invited to take those “facts” and believe what we will. Thanks, Milla, I wouldn’t have thought of that.

The movie is meant to be some sort of mystery/drama/horror/documentary… well, I’m not really sure, and it seems neither is the director, Olatunde Osunsanmi,  as he switches back and forth between genres attempting some sort of hybrid creation more misguided than that of Dr. Frankenstein. Throughout the movie, Osunsanmi switches between the original documented footage of and by Dr. Abigail Tyler and the reenactment starring Ms. Jovovich, in an attempt to add validity to the claims of this film. Unfortunately this only dilutes from the strength of the film and the validity of the characters.

None of these characters are real; throughout the movie we are constantly reminded that this is a reenactment. All of the major characters are given an introduction; Milla Jovovich introduces herself as an actress playing Dr. Abigail Tyler, titles are thrown across the screen ‘{enter actor here} playing {enter person here}’ and we are taken from the movie again and again reminding the viewer that what we are watching is in fact a portrayal (ie. fiction), BUT it is based on reality, if that makes you feel better. With that being said, no connection is made between the characters and the story, as the two exist on separate planes. The first, the documented films, give hints of story but lacking in any personal development behind it. The second, the reenactment gives characters without any real story or personal history. The two are never fused (which would be necessary to create a well rounded story), in fact the director does everything he can to separate them, as he interposes the ‘actual’ footage over the filmed segments. It is this separation of the two that does the movie the greatest injustice.

The great joy of any movie lies the idea that it could be real; in fact everything in it is supposed to be real, at least to the characters. How then is one supposed to buy into a film that argues amongst itself about its reality? The horror or should I say, intended horror, of this movie is supposed to stem from the fact that all of these are ‘real’ events. This fails, abysmally, due to the fact that very little in this movie is considered real. The director has erected a barrier between the audience and the story, that barrier being the actors and unfortunately the movie never recovers.

Milla Jovovich does an adequate job as the second Dr. Tyler, although none of the cast truly shines. Brief moments prompt laughter, though unintentionally. In the end, the film laughs at us. All and all there is nothing remarkably memorable about this film and if you will excuse me now I will work on forgetting.