The Fourth Kind (2009)

[shadowx 0]

Ok so while sitting the cinema waiting for "9" to begin we saw a trailer for the 4th kind. It promised to be a scare-fest based on alien abductions. The trailer showed various people screaming and one person levitating from their bed while a light shone through the window. Pretty creepy.

 

We saw this film yesterday after, much to my dismay, the film begins and the main actress, Milla Jovovich, stands in a creepy forest and the camera spins around her as she explains that the director included *real* (this word is important) footage from past events, real audio and every dramatized scene in the film is based on real footage, or real testimonies. IT also says that some names have been changed or omitted. Once she is finished babbling we are shown some real footage (and it looks genuine) of some sort of televised interview with Dr Tyler (remember that name) in which Tyler speaks about her story a little and sure enough [Name omitted] comes up as the film falls silent, before picking up her boring life story. So the footage is real. Fair enough. Nothing strange about that.

 

However... We are then shown the dramatized version of events involving Tyler, she is a psychologist, as was her husband, until she awoke in the middle of the night to see some tentacle type, knifey, spike drive through her husband and kill him. Terrified she seeks help in remembering who this "man" was (the attacker).

 

Now, in her day job many people report seeing a white owl and having difficulty sleeping. This owl is in their room, outside, inside everywhere. I will skip the dull details of tense moments, creepy music and rainy skies (you know when something scary is going to happen, it rains. Its silly....)

 

So, she gets closer to finding out whats going on with her patients and decides to hypnotize one to get at the memories of being woken in the night. She does. He gets absolutely terrified and more of that real footage comes back of the actual hypnosis in which this guy goes MENTAL scared out of his skin, screaming, trying to hide behind the sofa and smashing a lamp. He says there was no owl, he never saw an owl and it wasnt an owl at all, strange. He wakes up and Tyler (Milla Jovovich) asks what he saw. He said he saw nothing. We know its a lie, but why?

 

Well later that night she gets woken by a phone call. This bloke (Tony, i think) is holding his family hostage and wants to talk to her. Its raining when she arrives (duh) and they talk on the phone and he is hysterical, telling her that he cant face to see it again, and she asks what, he wont tell her then you see this real footage of him shooting his wife and kids. Nice. Real smooth.

 

It all ends, she is taken to the police station to explain his problems to the sheriff, sheriff August, inventive huh. He gets hi-rate accusing her of causing the shooting through the hypnosis.

 

She goes home eventually and listens to a few tapes before sleeping.

 

This repeats itself a couple of times with patients going to her about the owl and sleeping problems. It gets more interesting when a distraught patient asks to go under hypnosis. His wife watches as does a second psychologist. I forget his name.

 

This guy goes under and does the same as the other bloke. He basically has a fit, talks about there being no owl at all (even though he was adamant about seeing it every night for weeks on end) and then eventually he gets woken and pukes up. Oh yes.. If you are eating, look away now. Another real smooth moment.

 

So he goes home with his wife. Everyone says sorry to Tyler about the suicide shooting and she gives a tape to her secretary to transcribe. A little later the secretary bursts in petrified asking if Tyler has heard that tape. The tape in question was recorded earlier, we see Tyler in her room at night noting her thoughts. She goes to sleep. End of. Now, the secretary plays the tape to Tyler and the 2nd psychologist, low and behold tyler is speaking, the same things she said when we saw it. But then she screams, terrified of something, Tyler in the present is scared, confused. The tape screams various things like "dont take me" etc... all suggesting an abduction. Its pretty scary actually, but then hearing a woman with a blood curdling scream is scary anyway... You then hear metalic sounding voices, something like Transformers after a long night out and some bad translations on the screen mentioning various words like destruction, believe, etc... Scary stuff.

 

She goes home that night, sleeping alone (because thats just what id do too....) and listens to the tape, she sees a mark on her shoulder and scratch marks on the floor. A few flashbacks show her being dragged along the floor digging her nails in. Creepy...

 

She looks inter her husbands research and sees a book with a name written in it. A quick call and despite the voice on the phone it isnt a Nigerian lottery scam, but instead a researching of the Sumatran language and history.

 

He flies in, as you would obviously. A discussion with Tyler and the other psychologist and the Sumatran guy reveals that the metalic voice on the tape is the Sumatran language, and that in Sumatra there are many tablets picturing rockets, and spacemen in suits with masks. How true this is i dont know. But Tyler accepts it, and you can tell she knows it is alien related.. Nome (the setting in alaska) is apparently under attack from aliens with probes. Tasty.

 

The next morning or so, she gets a call from the patient she put under (not the dead one, that would just be weird!) he is in bed and needs to talk to her (ooh scandalous!) But no, he is terrified and says he needs to go under again. They setup a camera (the black sumatran researcher, Tyler and the other Psychologist) and she puts him under. She asks him what happened and he sits bolt upright moth wide open with a weird groaning sound, reminiscent of the Grudge, pretty scary. We then see REAL footage of this happening in real life. Some dodgy film of him doing the same thing but then in the dramatized film he floats off his bed...Surely they cant... This cant be.. What the.. But yes, the REAL film then goes to show us deteriorated footage of this happening in real life. Thats right folks i bring to you not only evidence of aliens but a man floating above his own bed. Oh yes... BUt the real footage is distorted now, almost as though a huge magnet was placed inside the camera, giving static, lines etc... before it all goes to static. Convenient.... This is where i start questioning it.

 

Dont worry though, it all goes completely normal after that... Or not...

 

Sherriff august comes to Tylers house as she is packing her bags to get the hell outta Nome. He says the guy that went under has severed spinal cord(s) (in fact he says 3 of his spinal nerves or something) and is paralysed. She protests her innocence as he reads out her right to remain silent. The second psychologist bursts in and says she is innocent and she gets put under house arrest with an officer outside. The office in his car outside turns on a camera, so we know there will be some more real footage coming up.

 

No surprises, its night time, and actually it isnt raining. For once in the miserable tale of Nome meteorology it ISNT raining, thats enough amazement in itself and i start to question the films authenticity, i mean its *not* raining?! What next?! Aliens?!

 

Well yes.

 

The cop is woken, looks out at the sky with a puzzled look on his face, which soon turns to terror. A bright light is shining on the roof of the house, he starts screaming etc... Then the REAL footage, a little static-y but then there are aliens outside.... And the real cop on the real film starts saying over the radio with great difficulty disjointed phrases and words like "bodies floating out of the house, aliens, abduction and "you better get someone down here" thats the understatement of the century, i think "get EVERYONE here, FBI, army, police EVERYONE" while madly screaming wouldve been better, but i digress. The police arrive to see Tyler in her room hysterical that her daughter (who is a boring character, hence i never mentioned her, oh she has a son too, he never says anything) has been taken through the roof by aliens. Riiiiiiight... The police take her son away and leave. She now has to be hypnotized by her fellow psychologist to find out who, how and why as she cant remember anything (the aliens have obviously watched MIB and made a Neuralyzer... Duh, keep up)

 

So the camera is set up, and back comes that REAL footage of the real Tyler going under. When asked a few questions she opens her mouth wide like an alien/horror flick actress always does and screams various phrases about being taken, give my baby back etc.......and that metalic voice comes back, which is semi-translated in subtitles on screen with phrases about the baby not coming back etc... destruction etc... and she asks who they are, the reply is "god" basically.

 

She wakes up in hospital, neck collar on and a little roughed up. Sheriff August tells her that her husband (Will) shot himself, and shows her the picture of his head with a bullet hole.

 

We go back to the real life interview thingy and she says that it was her way of accepting his death... But then the film ends with the main actors saying facts about Nome having 2000 FBI Official visits, the nearest comparison has 76 or something and the rate of missing persons and how the real life August, Tyler and other people declined all involvement in the film.

 

Spooky stuff.

 

However, a quick google search shows Tyler never existed according to the Nome council people and the Alaskan psychology association people, she was never registered in ANY profession, let alone being a Doctor!! The FBI never visited Nome that many times at all and it has a similar murder/suicide etc... rate to all the other towns in the Alaska. It also shows a picture of the real Nome which is about as flat as you can get, these are the people that thought the earth was flat, im telling ya, you couldnt make it any flatter than that. Yet in the film it is surrounded by mountains and trees. Nice.

 

so basically its a fakery, now i dont mind that... But when im bombarded with messages about how real this footage is it just angers me!!!

 

Overall it could be a good film, but the fake real footage ruins it for me. They shouldve stuck with the normal film format and it wouldve been a good scare.

 

6/10

[Anvilpinata 0]

Hm thanks for the review i still may go see it though. The fake real footage deffinetely throws it off. It kinda reminds me of how blair witch was lol. Meh at least Mila Jovovich is the star, they could have done worse.