“The Fourth Kind” begins with its lead actress, Milla Jovovich, insisting that “real” footage was used wherever possible throughout the film, including audio and film recordings. This is followed by the “real” footage of the film’s director interviewing a strikingly alien-looking “real” Dr. Abigail Tyler. This creepy woman starts to ramble on, giving clues to the “true story” we are about to witness. While her “true story” could be oh-so-compelling—what is really going on in a remote Alaskan town when multiple people start sharing the same sleepy memories of owls—it opts to bludgeon itself to death with its own “evidence,” which succeeds in interrupting built-up tension wherever it occurs. Jarring first-year-o’-film-school split screens reveal the poor acting abilities of the “real people” in the story, making the “actors” seem more convincing. The film also spends so much time hammering on the “truth” of its story that it literally forces you to wonder if it’s not all one big fat lie.
And, (no) big surprise, it is and Universal has to pay money for its viral marketing.
The truth behind hypnosis—the tool the film uses to recover hidden memories of alien abductions from the “real” people of Nome, Alaska—might have been applied to make this “true story” scary movie a much better one. I’ve come up with four (hyuk hyuk) suggestions that “true story” horror filmmakers can use to help make an audience believe in something that isn’t real.
