“The Fourth Kind” wants to scare you with something real. It fails. Olatunde Osunsanmi directs and writes a science-fiction thriller about a psychologist in Nome, Alaska, who uncovers evidence of alien abductions among her patients, and the film spends nearly two hours trying to convince you it’s all true. It isn’t.
The setup is simple. Dr. Abigail “Abbey” Tyler, played by Milla Jovovich, treats patients who report being stared at by a white owl before strange beings enter their homes. One patient kills his wife and children after remembering everything. Another speaks in an unknown language. Abbey herself hears a recording of something attacking her house. The film presents itself as a documentary, mixing interviews with Abbey and dramatized recreations of her sessions, complete with a disclaimer from Jovovich as herself that the whole thing is real.
Trailer, via ClipZone: Horrorscapes.
The Nome Abductions
The premise is strong. Since the 1960s, a large number of people in and around Nome have gone missing, and the FBI has never solved the cases. Abbey’s patients suggest a pattern: the missing may have been taken by aliens. The film leans heavily on the idea that these are real events, with Osunsanmi appearing as the interviewer and Charlotte Milchard playing the archival version of Abbey. The intercutting between documentary-style footage and dramatic re-enactments is meant to blur the line between fact and fiction.
What Works
Jovovich is fine. She sells the fear in Abbey’s face, especially when she realizes the attack on her house may have happened while she was unconscious. Elias Koteas and Will Patton also give solid support as Abel Campos and Sheriff August, though their roles are smaller than the film suggests. The tension in the early hypnosis scenes, where Abbey’s patients describe the owl and the creatures, is genuinely unsettling.
What Doesn’t Work
The film is too long. At 98 minutes, it drags through its own mythology, repeating the same ideas about the owl and the abductions across multiple scenes. The pacing sags in the middle, and the climax, which involves Abbey being attacked by the unseen beings, feels rushed after so much setup. The Sumerian language is a plot device, not a character, and the film doesn’t bother explaining why aliens would speak it.
The Pseudodocumentary Trap
Osunsanmi’s decision to present the film as a documentary is a clever trick, but it backfires. By claiming the events are real, the film forces viewers to accept a premise it can’t sustain. The archival footage scenes look staged, and the interviews feel like actors reading questions off a page. The effect is not suspense. It’s annoyance.
“There are four kinds of alien encounters. The fourth kind is abduction.”
The tagline is accurate as far as it goes. The film is about the fourth kind of encounter, but it doesn’t deliver the terror that tagline promises. Instead, it delivers a movie that’s half-documentary and half-horror, neither of which works.
Comparing the Two Versions of Abbey
| Version | Role | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Archival Abbey | Charlotte Milchard | Interviewee, presents the “true” story |
| Dramatic Abbey | Milla Jovovich | Actor, performs the story |
The table shows the film’s central trick: two versions of the same person, one speaking directly to the camera and one acting out the scene. It’s a neat idea, but the execution is thin. Milchard’s Abbey is a talking head, and Jovovich’s Abbey is a performer. Neither gets enough room to breathe.
The Final Hour
The film’s final act, where Abbey is attacked and the attackers speak in Sumerian, should be the payoff. Instead, it feels like a cheat. The language is unexplained, the attackers are unseen, and the film ends without resolving the mystery of the missing people. The credits even include a tombstone listing “Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler” as having “appeared” in the film, reinforcing the false documentary frame.
Verdict
“The Fourth Kind” is a film that wants to be a thriller but can’t decide if it’s a documentary. It’s too long, too repetitive, and too dishonest about what it’s showing you. The premise is good. The execution is not.
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