THE FOURTH KIND

October 2000. Dr. Abbey Tyler is recovering from the mysterious murder of her husband, who was killed while sleeping beside her in bed. To shed light on what happened to the man, Abbey travels to Nome, Alaska, where her husband was conducting psychoanalytic sessions with patients who claim to have been victims of alien abductions. The woman continues her husband's sessions and discovers common characteristics among all the alleged abductees, who say they see a disturbing owl outside their windows every night. When Abbey also sees the owl, the situation for the woman begins to deteriorate, and her patients behave increasingly strangely. The die is cast: after the torture porn trend, the first ten years of the third millennium will be remembered by horror fans for the mockumentary. A trend that has become increasingly widespread since 1999 when Myrick and Sanchez introduced us to 'The Blair Witch Project,' and, after a few years of stagnation, there was the real boom with the phenomenon '[REC]'; from that moment on, the trend of making horror films about events purported to be true through the staging of 'credible' documents and filming methods from 'reality TV' has now monopolized the horror cinematic landscape. Therefore, right after the release in our theaters of '[REC] 2' and just before the point of no return 'Paranormal Activity,' 'The Fourth Kind' also hits the big screen, this time on the theme of 'aliens.' 'The Fourth Kind,' however, is not a full-fledged mockumentary, or rather, it is not for its entire duration. In fact, the film directed by the American with the unpronounceable name Olatunde Osunsanmi only adopts the technique of the false documentary for the reconstruction of some psychoanalytic sessions and interviews that should serve as archival material (though be aware that it was all shot ex novo specifically for the film, including the footage with the 'real' protagonists, who are actually actors!), setting the rest of the work as any fiction film. Therefore, no subjective shots and no amateurish rendering, but simply a hybrid that inserts itself into the genre in a somewhat transverse manner. It must be said that the potential of 'The Fourth Kind' was truly high, a classic opportunity to give life to a gem of the genre, since the reality-fiction game and the originality of the technique could have played on the factor of novelty and, moreover, the theme of 'alien abductions,' if well treated, can give rise to truly disturbing stories. Obviously, if I start with this premise, it means that something must have gone wrong, and the proverbial 'sea' has created that barrier that exists between the 'saying' and the 'doing.' In fact, not only did 'The Fourth Kind' throw away every technical-expressive-narrative potential, but it managed to present itself as a deeply ugly film. Osunsanmi, who, in addition to directing the film, also wrote it, had the bad idea of wanting to make a fictional story true by reminding us every 5 minutes that we are watching a reconstruction, hence something fake. By bringing Milla Jovovich into the scene who presents herself to the public as herself, placing the names of the actors on the screen next to the characters they play, and (ab)using split-screen to put us close to the faces of the actors/characters with those of the alleged real protagonists of the story (but who are also actors/characters, after all) only serves to continuously obstruct the suspension of disbelief of the viewer, making him passive to the filmic experience—the worst thing that can happen in front of a film—and not allowing him to become interested in the characters and worry about their fate. The result is a film that is not very interesting, too fake in its desire to be realistic at all costs, and almost presumptuous in wanting to impose itself as a credible document, to which also contribute the cameos of the director himself in the role of interviewer and presenter of the story. Another point that does not speak in favor of 'The Fourth Kind' is the total lack of rhythm and the absolute narrative flatness of the story. The 100 minutes of the film are indeed almost exclusively made up of the psychoanalytic sessions to which Dr. Tyler subjects the alleged abductees. There is a lot of talking, too much for a film of this kind, sporadically interrupted by sudden panic attacks that affect the 'analyzed' and should represent the moments of fright also for the viewer. In reality, out of the 4-5 moments of fear—all characterized by a terrorist use of the alternation of sound tracks to create the 'jump from the seat' effect—only one works, the one that sees one of the patients levitate on the bed; the others are more annoying than anything else, almost comical skits with people screaming. 'The Fourth Kind' introduces two original ideas regarding the theme treated: on the one hand, there is the aspect of the aliens, on the other, their divine nature. The portrayal of the visitors as owls—though there is a glaring error in the film, as those shown are not owls but eagle owls—is a suggestive idea, and the animals considered, true masters of the night, with their calmness and at the same time authoritative appearance, seem like perfect choices to embody the night visitors, halfway between reality and nightmare. The second idea, of tracing the aliens back to Sumerian deities, seems a bit forced and intrusive in a similar story; the same can be said of the scenes with the abductees who behave as if possessed by the devil, an original but unattractive choice compared to the subject treated. The director, who comes from the terrible clone of 'The Descent' titled 'The Cavern,' amuses himself with editing tricks, sometimes in an exaggerated way, just like those children who have just discovered a new game and flaunt it here and there with the danger of breaking it. The cast, which includes names like Milla Jovovich ('Resident Evil,' 'Ultraviolet'), Elias Koteas ('The Last Prophesy'; 'The Messenger'), and Will Patton ('The Punisher'; 'Gone in 60 Seconds'), is little involved and little engaging, perhaps also due to flat characters and lack of depth. In short, a bad film that has the aggravating circumstance of a wasted opportunity, caused by the reckless idea of giving free rein to someone with confused ideas, inexperience, and a latent desire for protagonism.