The Fourth Kind (2009)

This movie terrified me. The way they used " actual footage" was very clever and well executed. I thought it worked well, a slow build up to a huge ending

This movie is extremely disturbing and the true story is even crazier. Whether you're new to the alien scene or are an experienced UFO hunter this film will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Now time for a story: My friend and I are lovers of the supernatural, the extra terrestrial, and all things horror. We decided, one night, to watch a new (at the time) movie, The Fourth Kind. We rented the DVD and neglected to watch it and, instead, played some videogames. It wasn't until very late that we finally decided to pop the disc in and see the film. We. Were. Terrified. We had studied the events before, and seeing them come to life on our TV really put it into perspective. In the film all abductions happen at a specific time, 3:33 in the morning, and some abductees, trying to block out the bad memories, would see barn owls in their dreams/memories to cope with the reality of seeing aliens. The movie ended, the credits rolled, and my friend and I were huddled together on my bed. We were tired, it was getting late, and I decided to look at my clock... 3:32 am... If that wasn't scary enough I had an odd collection of things on my desk. One part of that collection was, you guessed it, a fake barn owl used for scaring crows away. We didn't sleep until sunrise and that owl has found its place in the attic where it can never scare me again. Very scary and a moment we will never forget.

The Fourth Kind (2009): Dir: Olatunde Osansanmi / Cast: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, Corey Johnson, Charlotte Milchard: Supposedly based on actual ominous cases and disappearances in Alaska. What the fourth kind is isn't clear. Are the first three kinds male, female and animal? Just asking, that's all. Dr. Emily Tyler witnessed the murder of her husband by unseen forces. Director Olatunde Osansanmi presents this in documentary form mixed with shock moments of possession that viewers may not buy. Apparently when snowy owls perch just outside your window, it indicates an encounter with another life form. Milla Jovovich plays Dr. Tyler whose hypnosis open horrors and eventual separation from her children. Elias Koteas is flat as her psychiatrist. He does little more than reassure her sanity and assist her in dealing with accusations that point her as guilty. Will Patton plays Sheriff August who grows fearful and impatient particularly when cops watching the residents are found dead. Corey Johnson plays a patient under guidance by Tyler. He will allow himself to be hypnotized but eventually his trauma leads to murder suicide. Charlotte Milchard makes an appearance as the real version of the Jovovich character. Well made film that draws heavily on supposed unexplained events that go unanswered. It toys with claims that never convince yet it catches our imagination. Score: 6 / 10

It's always a bit fun when a found footage movie affirms to be real footage and sticks with that claim throughout the film. You get to play along with the filmmakers and hopefully get a satisfying horror flick out of it. Movies like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project did this well, but some movies are a bit too ardent about their authenticity and come off as silly. The Fourth Kind fits somewhere in the ladder category. In The Fourth Kind, the town of Nome, Alaska is plagued by mysterious disappearances, murders and suicides in the early 2000's. A psychologist, Abbey Taylor, head hypnosis sessions with various patients whose stories seem to have distinct similarities, and Abbey realizes that she might be tormented by the same thing that afflicts her patients. The film mostly mixes found footage with dramatized versions of the footage, sometimes showing the "real" and dramatized portions side-by-side. For the most part, it's just aggravating. You'll hear the same dialog from two different actors at the same time on occasion, which begs the question why they didn't either go all-in with the found footage. The found footage scenes are the most intense parts of the films. Not necessarily scary, but they are visceral enough to be memorable. The dramatized scenes are melodramatic and dull. Surprisingly, the movie would have been much better if it was completely found footage. The Fourth Kind has some effective stretches here and there, but it's mostly a half-baked affair.