THE FOURTH KIND (Blu-ray; Universal)

Mike LoManaco

Studio Name: Universal (Gold Circle Films)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Disc/Transfer Information: 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1; Region 1 (U.S.) Release Tested
Tested Audio Track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Starring Cast: Milla Jovovich, Will Patton


THERE ARE FOUR KINDS OF ALIEN ENCOUNTERS…
THE FOURTH KIND IS ABDUCTION.


SYNOPSIS/PLOT ANALYSIS:

Wow. I haven’t seen a film this frightening or unsettling in a very long time – and it’s difficult to begin in terms of exactly what constitutes this kind of feeling about The Fourth Kind. This was initially recommended to me by a friend and it looked intriguing enough, so I gave it a spin. It was initially rumored to be a wild hybrid of Paranormal Activity and Fire in the Sky, and initially, I didn’t think it was going to be anything beyond another rehashing of disappointing “strange occurrence” films like Passengers or Haunting in Connecticut…projects which could have easily been exceedingly terrifying in the right hands, but ended up simply flopping. However, after viewing Universal’s Blu-ray of The Fourth Kind, I can bear witness to the fact that the film is indeed like Paranormal Activity but changing the subject material from ghosts to aliens.

What makes the film so different from other pseudo-in-real-time “docu-movies” is the fact that there’s an opening sequence featuring actress Milla Jovovich in which she explains, via almost three-dimensional angles of her in a forest surrounding, that the events that we are about to witness were based on actual case studies of Dr. Abigail Tyler (whom Jovovich portrays) and that the scenes are going to switch back and forth, in some manner, between actual video and audio footage and clips of the real case and the film version reenactments. From my recollection, there hasn’t been a film that quite did it this way – the results, if we were watching the actual documented footage and not some gussied-up fake, were unbelievably startling and effective. Jovovich then goes on to warn us that what we are about to see is “very disturbing.” It definitely set the tone for what was about to come, and even though this was “merely” rated PG-13, it was more frightening and unsettling than any other alien abduction film I’ve seen in recent history – including the aforementioned modern classic of this genre, Fire in the Sky and even Spielberg’s Close Encounters.

The Fourth Kind blends supposed “actual footage” of certain disturbing events surrounding one Dr. Abigail Tyler of Alaska and her treatments of patients seemingly suffering from the same psychotic episodes and sleep patterns with reenactments of these events through performances by Jovovich as the doctor and Will Patton as the sheriff of the small Alaska town; as a psychologist, she hypnotizes her patients and finds a common link between them, mainly involving an owl which they claim visits them each night. But before any of this is even explained to us, the film sets up a scenario in which the director, Olatunde Osunsanmi, is videotaping an interview with the real Tyler in a college conference room and asking her questions about her “ordeals”…some of this is very suspect in my opinion, as the “real” Abigail Tyler looks insanely drugged and comatose during all of this footage. The footage itself doesn’t even look real; there is no genuine feel to the interview segments, as Abigail herself looks almost possessed or haggard and speaks in a fashion no ordinary person would during an interview of this type. Further, the casting choice of Jovovich in the role of Tyler for the reenactment sequences didn’t make sense either as the two look nothing alike – even in her “psychotic breakdown” stage, Jovovich never comes off looking anything like the real frightening-looking Tyler.

But no matter, Osunsanmi’s decision to film this way is definitely effective and shocking – if we were looking at actual collected footage of interviews and therapy sessions, it makes it even more so. As the film progresses, the screen is sometimes split in two or in a few halves, as we watch reenacted parts of the “real footage” at the same time – for example, when the real Dr. Tyler is interviewing patients and asking them questions during hypnosis sessions, we see on the other half of the screen Jovovich doing this to actors representing the patients. When “actual” footage is onscreen, there are visual indicators which state the time of day and what Tyler is doing with the patient; some of the parallel performances were spot-on and very unnerving. As I mentioned, this was a very effective and rather novel approach that I haven’t experienced much of, if any, in modern American cinema to date.

THE FOURTH KIND REVIEW CONTINUED BELOW...

Mike LoManaco

The facts of the real case revolve around alleged FBI documents which investigate “strange occurrences” that took place in a remote area of Alaska (between the vampires that stalked the residents of Barrow in 30 Days of Night and now this, Obama may want to consider a quarantine of the great arctic state) and the connection these events had to a psychologist there, Abigail Tyler. Supposedly, her husband was murdered, and this set off a chain reaction of events which revolved around her patients and the common link they all had to one another – basically, being terrorized in their minds by some unseen force or presence they couldn’t understand. Some of the patients ended up being killed, which enraged and stumped the law enforcement of the Alaskan town; eventually, Tyler herself is put under hypnosis by a trusted colleague to try and make sense of what she was going through after all this. One of those sequences is captured on real audio tape and via reenactment quite terrifyingly, in which Jovovich’s assistant gives her a transcript tape of what she recorded one evening at home, and the tape suddenly breaks into shrill screams and the mysterious booming voice that seems to be “attacking” her on tape.

We witness Jovovich, as Tyler, interviewing and putting under hypnosis each of her patients – with the supposed real footage cut in between of these interviews – which culminate with every one of them in a hysterical state and fearing something that’s about to attack or “take them away” just before their hypnosis session is up. One patient in particular ends up going home, taking a gun to his wife’s head, and blasting her full of lead along with their children (this sequence has some real footage also, which was a bit disturbing in that you actually see this guy kill the family with the gun from witness cameras). The sheriff, played by Will Patton, suspects Jovovich’s hypnosis is somehow doing this to all the people in the town – that is, making them go nuts – and places her on constant survellieance.

In between all this are clips from the continuing interview with the real Abigail Tyler, being conducted by the director of the film in the college conference room, as she explains some of the events transpiring in the film as we witness it; the perspective is strange yet fascinating, and you really need to see it firsthand to understand what I’m explaining here. There’s still the connection Jovovich’s husband has to the whole case, as he was supposedly murdered in front of her years ago, as well as a professional linguist expert whom the husband apparently reached out to before his death. Jovovich tracks this linguist down through his book and brings him in on the work she’s doing with her hypnotized patients. Listening to the transcript tape of Jovovich in her own bed one evening suddenly rip into terrified screams of mercy and unidentified, strange voices and tones, the linguist expert concludes the language on the tape is coming from an extremely ancient possibly alien race which precluded the appearance of Christ or anything we understand in modern society. The film definitely got more interesting and frightening at this point; trust me – you’ll want to make sure the wife is within reaching distance of your hand so she can squeeze it.

During the hypnotism of one of her more disturbed patients, Jovovich, along with her colleague which put her under and the linguist expert, all bear witness to possibly the most creepy sequence of the whole film – at one point during the hypnotism, the subject bellows an unearthly cry and begins to contort, his mouth and face forming a strange shape just before he actually begins levitating off the bed. The effect was much like what you’d see in a demonic possession story, but so terrifyingly different at the same time – made even more shocking in that actual footage is running right next to the reenactment onscreen, in which we see the actual patient begin bellowing and possibly levitating, although an unearthly “static” distorts the “real” video footage signal during this and other sequences. That was an aspect I thought was a bit hokey – the film suggests that some of the actual footage was interfered with by an “unknown power” when crucial things were taking place, and I can understand that if this was all alien in origin, that could very well happen…but it also reminded me a lot of the so-called “evidence” that’s out there claiming the UFO in the sky is real – but there are no clear pictures of these things to really say so.

In any event, the sheriff goes to see Jovovich after her patient ends up paralyzed from the waist down after his hypnotic “attack” by something and threatens to take her children away from her. One of her kids, her daughter, is blind, and in another disturbing sequence, we see an actual trooper staked out in front of the real Tyler’s house witnessing a sudden “alien attack” of some kind in which, again, the screen goes fuzzy but we can hear the trooper actually yelling and hooting about something weird over Tyler’s house that eventually “takes” the daughter away, out of the roof. A quick clip of a black shadow forming over the real Tyler household in the “real” footage is creepy – if it was genuine. So, Jovovich, in playing Tyler, reports her daughter has been “taken” by a beam of light from the sky that shot down into the house – and in the real interview with her, we hear her explain how she needed to now make contact with these alien intelligences and demand they return the girl to her. The final sequence in which Tyler is actually under deep hypnosis and supposedly makes some kind of eerie contact with this alien race is creepy too – we hear the bellowing, almost demonic croaking of the so-called aliens as they take over her body in her chair, and through distorted video transmission once more, we can see Tyler’s face contorting eerily. Through these wild scenes, there is a translation onscreen as to what the unknown voices are saying in the actual real audio recordings of these sessions – at one point, it seems as though the voice bellows “I AM GOD”…and that my friends was plain weird.

There’s a concluding segue way in which Jovovich and the film’s director suggest to the audience that we are left to make up our own minds as to what just transpired; the final interview sequence which focuses on the real Abigail Tyler in her haggard, frightening state and in her wheelchair, as she’s being asked the final questions about her ordeal by the director, are a bridge to the film’s onscreen finale which sum up the aftermath of this case. According to the report, the FBI has been up to this area of Alaska ridiculous amounts of times to investigate these occurrences. Further, Tyler’s real daughter had never been found since the so-called “abduction” and her son, now in his 20’s, continues to blame Tyler herself for his sister’s disappearance. What I found most interesting about all this post-feature onscreen commentary was that all the actual people involved in this story outside of Tyler herself – including the real sheriff, the linguist expert and Tyler’s colleague shrink – all refused to participate in the telling of the “real” story and denied what their actor co-parts portrayed during the making of the film.

CONTINUED BELOW...

Mike LoManaco

For what it’s worth, I found The Fourth Kind to be genuinely scary – the sequences which mix the so-called “real” documented footage with the reenactments made the narrative so unsettling, it’s difficult to describe. The scenes which showcase the patients or Tyler herself bucking into these hysterical “possession fits” when the alien contact is being made in their subconscious minds via hypnosis were particularly jarring – I’d advise caution if watching this with children. But what struck me most about the attempt here was the fact that perhaps we’re having some wool pulled over our eyes – I didn’t do any research on the case yet, but I get the feeling, through the “hokey” look of the interviews with the real Abigail Tyler and some of the “fuzzy” footage, that some of this was simple hoax material. It’s not like we haven’t seen this before – does The Amityville Horror or Blair Witch ring a bell? – yet there’s something very sinister and disturbing about the events surrounding The Fourth Kind.

And I simply couldn’t get past the haggard, horrible and downright “demonic” look of the real Abigail Tyler in that college interview – she looked as though she was two steps from death’s door, and although this could be explained away by suggesting she simply went through an ordeal that was life-draining, I just don’t know…

Watch the film and judge for yourself…and let me know what you thought.


VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?

With Universal behind the hoopla of The Fourth Kind, you know the Blu-ray drill: A spiffy widescreen transfer and wall-rattling Master Audio track, right? Well, due to the mixture of the raw video footage and Hollywood reenactment magic, this Blu-ray comes off as a mixed bag in the quality department. Most of the transfer looked good which featured Jovovich in the simulated sequences, what with detailed outdoor scenes and close-ups, but there was some noise and grain in certain backgrounds. The actual video footage didn’t fare to well, however, with a noise and artifacting element that made it difficult to see beyond.

Delving in deeper with regard to Universal’s Blu-ray Disc of The Fourth Kind, there was really nothing much else to say save for the fact that when the action went from the reenactments to the archived footage, there was a definite change in resolution and quality and although expected to a degree, the transfer as a whole came off not looking all that, as aforementioned, “spiffy.”


AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?

In usual Universal fare, an English 5.1 mix in DTS-HD Master Audio lossless in onboard here, and it too was a mixed bag – for the most part, dialogue was crisp and tactile, pulling you into the story effectively enough, but it seemed to be lost in the mix amidst all the rest of the mayhem that explodes during action sequences. Perhaps “lost” isn’t the right term here – it’s just that when there’s an “abduction” or “attack” sequence involving one of Tyler’s patients or herself, the Master Audio mix exhibited massive walls of energy and shock value – there’s a heaving, heavy almost overbearing sense of LFE in the track, building to a crescendo as a scene ramps up to reveal something about the mystery we’re dealing with here. Surrounds were used effectively as well, creating the ambience of an Alaskan geography during rainy and then bird-chirp-filled days. There were several jump-out-of-your-panties moments when audio cues and stingers were utilized to emphasize a shocking scene – if your master volume is up high enough, these moments will indeed make you twitch a bit in your seat if you aren’t prepared for them.


EXTRAS:

Surprisingly, for such a subject riddled with intrigue, rumor and mystery, there were absolutely no documentaries on the disc I sampled, and nothing to explain some of the true case files regarding Abigail Tyler and her Alaskan town – these would have been crucial in these matters, wouldn’t you think? The only extra were a crop of deleted scenes – very disappointing from Universal.


SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS:

This was really, truly creepy – if you like the “abduction” stories, whether they’re true or not (as the jury’s still out on the infamous Fire in the Sky Arizona case), and you cannot stand the direction the overrated and entertainment-less X Files took this genre, then you will love The Fourth Kind. As I said, there are moments of shocking “dealings” (in my opinion) so I wouldn’t watch this with younger kids, regardless of the “PG-13” moniker; but the story here is fascinating if it was really true, and that was the biggest problem I had with the film. I’m not so sure how much of it I believe, as the interviews with the so-called “real” central character come off looking really staged and fake, as does her haggard, almost possessed appearance. But that’s also what makes this such a fun, creepy ride – you get to sit there trying to figure out if those video and audio clips were actually real and genuine, and contemplate that if they in fact were…how frightened we would all really be.

kuntasensei

Agree with Keiko. Would've been far more interesting if done as a straight narrative instead of the gimmick they used. Plus, there are enough real accounts of things like this in Alaska that it was unnecessary for the filmmakers to completely fabricate one. Once you know that it was all B.S., this movie just feels like a giant cheat.

comfortablycurt

This thread makes me want to hurt myself...and that's without even reading the review!!


This thread gets 0/5 stars on the LoCurtico scale.

wutadumsn23

I though it was pretty lame, but our 15 yr. old daughter was so scared she slept in our room on her mattress for 4 days, lol.

-Jeff

Sherardp

I watched this one as a loaner and thought it was kinda lame also. I would give it a 1 for effort. Other than that not much else on the Le' Peppy, Le' Pool scale.

hearingimpared

wutadumsn23 wrote: »

I though it was pretty lame, but our 15 yr. old daughter was so scared she slept in our room on her mattress for 4 days, lol.

-Jeff

Kind of makes you wonder about the PG-13 rating vs. 'R'.

hearingimpared

Keiko wrote: »

Only 2 movies scared me that I can recall. Night of the Living Dead and Boris Karloff, in the original Mummy. I was 7-8 yo at the time. Boris used to give me nightmares.

Only two movies ever freaked me out one, "In Cold Blood" when I was quite young and two, the original "Halloween", I jumped so hard and threw my arms back and elbowed my wife on one side of me and my best friend on the other, right on their chins.:eek:

shack

Keiko wrote: »

Think I'd be more entertained watching re-runs of Lost in Space.



Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

I certainly hope you are not bashing Lost in Space. I take that as a personal affront since that was one of my favorite TV show. I am taking this off-line to deal with the proper Authorities... Danger, Keiko Robinson! Danger!

hearingimpared

Keiko wrote: »

Loved it when I was a kid, shack. I remember running home from school to watch it. Warning! Warning! Doctor Smith is irate! :eek:

When I was a kid my mom use to tell us to stay away from men who behaved like Dr. Smith!:eek::D

hearingimpared

Keiko wrote: »

Dr. Smith is a Bellicose Bumpkin.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3316.asp

Those are priceless Mike. He was funny as all get out! He was the Norm Peterson of "Lost in Space."

shack

Robot: [singing operatically] "Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!"
Dr. Smith: "Oh, shut up."
Robot: "That does not compute!"



Robot: "My micromechanism thanks you, my computer tapes thank you, and I thank you."

hearingimpared

Keiko wrote: »

The Robot has left the building. Thank you, very much.

You know, I have an RC replica of the B9 Robot. He stands an impressive 2ft. tall and uses 8 D size batteries, IIRC. I only powered it up once just to check it out. Pretty cool with working lights and the torso spins a complete 360. Got him stored away in my bedroom closet, still in the original box. Paid 100.00 for it back in the mid 90s. Seen some sell on ebay for over 400.00.

Linky:

http://www.toytent.com/Robots/1504.html

I'm impressed that you are secure enough in yourself to admit that!:eek::D

comfortablycurt

Keiko wrote: »

The Robot has left the building. Thank you, very much.

You know, I have an RC replica of the B9 Robot. He stands an impressive 2ft. tall and uses 8 D size batteries, IIRC. I only powered it up once just to check it out. Pretty cool with working lights and the torso spins a complete 360. Got him stored away in my bedroom closet, still in the original box. Paid 100.00 for it back in the mid 90s. Seen some sell on ebay for over 400.00.

Linky:

http://www.toytent.com/Robots/1504.html

I've got one of those too actually. It's still sealed in the original box.

kuntasensei

Keiko wrote: »

Nerd!

I was gonna say the same thing... but then I looked over at my Spinal Tap and Planet of the Apes lunchboxes, and realized I was totally living in a glass house!

cstmar01

kuntasensei wrote: »

I was gonna say the same thing... but then I looked over at my Spinal Tap and Planet of the Apes lunchboxes, and realized I was totally living in a glass house!

haha theres always far worse stuff to collect, or more nerdy, trust me!