Movies are all about how well promoted they are and this movie had a great viral campaign. Said to be based on actual events and footage from Nome, Alaska, Universal Pictures agreed to a $20,000 settlement with the Alaska Press Club “to settle complaints about fake news archives used to promote the movie.” Universal acknowledged that they created fake online news articles and obituaries to make it appear that the movie had a basis in real events. That’s an outrageous campaign they got there.

Brought by OBS staff member Rose

Name: The Fourth Kind
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 98 minutes

Directors: Olatunde Osunsanmi

Synopsis
Dr. Abigail Tyler’s (Milla Jovovich) husband has been murdered and in order to find out what happened and gain closure from the experience, she agrees to be hypnotized by a fellow psychologist. During the hypnosis she is still unable to recall anything but the fact that her husband was drenched in blood.

The recorded sessions with Dr. Tyler continue on with her re-telling of coincidental incidences that occurred with other patients of hers, all claiming to waking in the middle of the night at 3am and seeing an owl sitting outside their window. As Dr. Tyler investigates further, she believes that it may be alien abductions and somehow tied into her husband’s death.

Review
‘There is nothing more frightening than the Fourth Kind’.

Based on supposed true events, The Fourth Kind starts off with Milla Jovovich telling the audience that this film is a dramatization of events that occurred from October 1st through the 9th in the year 2000, in Nome, Alaska. Actual archived footage was used of videotaped therapy sessions with the so-called actual Dr. Abigail Tyler and her patients. Milla ends her message by stating what we are about to see can be disturbing.

The cross referencing of the supposed actual footage with the actors portraying their characters gives the film a slight documentary feel and heightened sense of realism. Milla Jovovich puts on a good dramatic performance, a nice turn from her normal kick-ass, heroine character she portrays, while Will Paton’s portrayal as hot-headed Sheriff August was over the top and somewhat unbelievable.

A viable question is raised by Dr. Tyler after one of her patients she put under hypnosis kills his entire family. If her other patients who had the same reoccurring visions were put under hypnosis, would they see what he did and ultimately become unstable as well? Well, that question is answered and then some. But don’t be fooled, this is not Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you won’t be seeing any cute aliens or spaceships, or any aliens for that matter. The closest thing to a special effect you will see is the constant fuzzying over of the screen when anything alien does occur. If they would have bumped it up a notch and shown something more than they did, this alien film could have been scary, instead it is simply suspenseful.

I’ve researched to see if there was any truth to this alien abduction story in Nome and all roads lead to it simply being a viral marketing campaign. If this type of thing happens often enough, the day a UFO story is real, no one will believe it, which probably won’t be any different than how people would react now. Still, its something to think about. I’ve always felt that we are not alone and regardless of whether or not this movie is based on fact or fiction, it’s still a good movie and it brings up a lot of points to ponder.

Rating: 7/10 stars