We are Kayleigh and Rob, and this a review based on the 2009 film The Fourth Kind. Whether or not you choose to believe our review is up to you, but all the evidence is here.
The Fourth Kind (2009)
KD & RB
The Fourth Kind begins with Milla Jovovich walking towards the screen, and lecturing the audience that the story is ‘based on real events’, and gives the choice whether the audience wants to believe or not, saying that the film contains distressing scenes. All this adds is a sense of mild confusion. The film is set in the remote Alaskan town of Nome, and follows a psychologist as she deals with patients who suffer from similar sleep disorders. All the patients wake up at the specific time of 3:33am. The reason for waking is, and it is difficult to write this, seeing a white owl looking at them through their window. A white owl. Staring. The owl is an important character, and we never find out who plays it, although it may have been Hedwig, or a muppet.
In order to understand why they wake up at this point, the psychologist puts them under hypnosis and tries to delve into their subconscious and understand what is really waking them up. In scenes like this, the screen splits and shows the “archive footage”, featuring the ‘real people’ alongside the same event, allegedly recreated for film. The film then follows the psychologists’ attempts to convince a sceptical local authority, and her own family and colleagues, that the sleeping disorders are linked to alien activity. It is intercut with ‘later’ interviews, again featuring the ‘real’ psychologist.
The Fourth Kind attempts to cash in on The Blair Witch Project by claiming that it is based on real events. However, the ‘event’ in this instance is so farfetched, and doesn’t have the subtlety of Blair Witch, so it doesn’t work as well. Whilst watching this film, a large quantity of rhubarb and custard sweets were consumed, and to be honest, they were far more interesting and were able to hold my attention. It may have helped if the film was not purporting to be a true story, because by stating it at the beginning, the end, and the ‘real footage’, it immediately evokes scepticism, which detracts from the shoddy plot.
By far the best shot of the film was a 360 degree panning shot around the owl, who follows the camera by turning his head. Neither of us were sure if this was intending to be as hilarious as it turned out. Aside from that, there are some nice aerial shots of snowy mountains, but when this is the best thing you can say about a film, then you can kind of predict what the rating is going to be...
In order to understand why they wake up at this point, the psychologist puts them under hypnosis and tries to delve into their subconscious and understand what is really waking them up. In scenes like this, the screen splits and shows the “archive footage”, featuring the ‘real people’ alongside the same event, allegedly recreated for film. The film then follows the psychologists’ attempts to convince a sceptical local authority, and her own family and colleagues, that the sleeping disorders are linked to alien activity. It is intercut with ‘later’ interviews, again featuring the ‘real’ psychologist.
The Fourth Kind attempts to cash in on The Blair Witch Project by claiming that it is based on real events. However, the ‘event’ in this instance is so farfetched, and doesn’t have the subtlety of Blair Witch, so it doesn’t work as well. Whilst watching this film, a large quantity of rhubarb and custard sweets were consumed, and to be honest, they were far more interesting and were able to hold my attention. It may have helped if the film was not purporting to be a true story, because by stating it at the beginning, the end, and the ‘real footage’, it immediately evokes scepticism, which detracts from the shoddy plot.
By far the best shot of the film was a 360 degree panning shot around the owl, who follows the camera by turning his head. Neither of us were sure if this was intending to be as hilarious as it turned out. Aside from that, there are some nice aerial shots of snowy mountains, but when this is the best thing you can say about a film, then you can kind of predict what the rating is going to be...
KD & RB
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