Review: The Fourth Kind

Before jumping into this review, I feel a need to give a word of warning as to what I am and am not covering in this piece. The Fourth Kind takes the filmmaking style made famous by The Blair Witch Project to an entirely new level. While the latter merely uses the dramatic-mockumentary setup to add weight to its fictitious scenario, The Fourth Kind attempts to pass off its material as entirely real. Even before its release, the film was under heavy fire from journalists and critics alike for its dubious claims. However, I feel that while I have much to say on this issue, and plan on following this review up with an article on just that, I do not feel like a review is the right place to discuss it. Therefore, I will not be seeking in any way to debunk or support any of the claims The Fourth Kind makes in a meta sense. I will be critiquing this film solely as a movie, nothing more.

With that being said, The Fourth Kind is an extremely difficult film for me to digest, much less dissect. On one hand, the film is an incredibly ambitious and undoubtedly original take on a very tired concept. On the other hand, though its aspirations are grand, its execution is extremely uneven and at times even painful to watch.

The film opens with Milla Jovovich, as herself and speaking directly to the audience, informing us that what we were about to see was based on actual case studies, substantiated by never-before-seen archival footage. Director Olatunde Osunsanmi, also as himself, is then seen interviewing a Dr. Abigail Tyler on her experiences with unexplained phenomena in 2000.

Her story centers on Nome, Alaska, the setting of numerous unexplained deaths and disappearances. A psychologist whose family is still recovering after the death of her husband, Tyler is seeking to complete the work of her late spouse: a study on sleep disorders in the remote Alaskan town.

This setup is important, not only because it establishes the film in the “real world,” but also because very little actually happens in the film, in a grander sense that is. Pretty much the entirety of Dr. Tyler’s “interview recollections” occur in a relatively limited number of settings. Almost the entirety of the film is set within or around three main locations in Nome. This seems done in an effort to further ground the film in realism; from the very beginning we can be sure that Tyler will certainly not be gallivanting around with men in rubber suits. Instead, The Fourth Kind drives its story forward predominantly through Tyler’s interactions with the subjects of her study and the repercussions of those sessions.

The sessions, towards the beginning that is, are brimming with subtle terror and relay to us that, from the very onset, Tyler is not quite as in control of her study as she would like. This combined with the notion that much of what we are seeing is second-hand at best, leaves us with the disconcerting notion that we can only be sure of more uncertainty. The editing in these sequences is heavy-handed no doubt, but the promise of what’s to come adds to an immensely intriguing setup.  The pacing of this setup certainly works in its favor. The intense opening flashback, the ominous foreshadowing, the slow build-up, all lay the groundwork for some very effective tension. The real tragedy here is in the poor execution of that setup.

The intrigue and subtlety of the opening sequences soon give way to ridiculously over-the-top and clichéd scenes composed of overly-stylized flashbacks and a lot of people screaming at stuff we can’t see. The acting is almost universally bad, running the gamut from amateurish to just plain awful. I can excuse the overacting in some of the more intense scenes, but when the speech in the interview or in the archival footage sounds forced, there’s very little to defend.

By the end of the film, we are left with massive plot holes which, instead of allowing the viewer to fill themselves with their own interpretations, are hurriedly and clumsily filled for us. It’s as if the filmmakers did not trust the audience to draw intelligent conclusions from the film’s ideas, and instead opted to beat us over the head with the “answers.” And while I feel an obligation to commend them for the surprisingly subtle and at least a touch disturbing conclusion, the gaping discrepancies and unrealistic nature of many of the scenarios break the film’s attempt to fully ground itself in the “real world.”

On this note, it’d seem impossible to end this review without touching on what seems to be The Fourth Kind’s most novel contribution. In an effort to give itself an air of authenticity, the film includes sequences of “archival footage” that mirror the action of scene. The footage is often presented in a split-screen style, with anywhere from two to four videos playing onscreen at once. While it’s undoubtedly inventive, the overuse of the technique, especially as footage begins to be repeated, grows wearisome very quickly. This, in addition to the often lackluster performances in these segments, tremendously limits their dramatic impact.

Overall, The Fourth Kind is not especially entertaining, nor is it particularly thought-provoking. Between an unsatisfying payoff, the hackneyed stylizations, and dreadful acting, there’s just not much to love about this film. There is however, quite a bit to admire. Olatunde Osunsanmi and crew certainly took risks in trying to present the film as they did. While I cannot say I found this film to be one I would readily recommend to others, I feel it is worth a viewing if only to take in an entirely refreshing perspective on what can be accomplished in this seemingly limited filmmaking style.

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