The Fourth Kind

Paranormal Activity's unlikely run atop the box office chart may have come to an end, but the moviegoing public's nascent fascination with otherworldly phenomena — the unfriendly variety, in particular — shows no signs of waning. The Fourth Kind, a supernatural thriller from writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi, represents Hollywood's latest attempt to capitalise on this peculiar trend.

Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind are very different movies, to be sure, but they share the same basic approach, employing gritty, documentary-style footage to convince us that what we're watching unfold on-screen is more "real" — and thus more convincing — than the typical glossy Hollywood thriller.

But The Fourth Kind goes far beyond Paranormal Activity in its effort to establish its legitimacy. In an unprecedented — and exceedingly ballsy — manoeuvre, star Milla Jovovich begins the film by breaking the fourth wall and addressing the camera directly. In a lengthy monologue, she introduces herself as "actress Milla Jovovich," explains that she'll be portraying real-life psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, and declares that the documentary footage scattered throughout The Fourth Kind is authentic, recorded during a sleep-disorder study conducted in Nome, Alaska, a few years ago.

Why Nome? Because, we're told, its citizens are afflicted by an unusual number of nighttime sleep disturbances, the bulk of which are accompanied by terrifying visions of hostile, alien-like creatures. Nasty fellows these extra-terrestrials are, taunting and tormenting and probing their victims as they lie helpless, paralysed with fear. Some of the otherworldly visitors even have the audacity to take possession of their somnolent subjects, using them as vessels to deliver ominous warnings to Abby and her colleagues. Speaking in ancient tongues with voices horribly distorted, they demand that she end her research.

But Abby won't listen to them, and her persistence effects increasingly dire consequences. One of her afflicted patients kills himself and his family; another is paralysed after levitating during a harrowing hypnotic episode; finally, the aliens set their sights on Abby herself. One might be tempted to dismiss these episodes as merely the hallucinations of a badly traumatised woman — the classic unreliable narrator — if it weren't all captured on video.

For those willing to buy into The Fourth Kind's claims of authenticity, the experience is at times genuinely terrifying. But after a while it becomes increasingly obvious that the film's documentary sequences are staged — and often badly so. Director Osunsanmi brought a clever idea to the table, but he didn't quite have the skills — or the actors — to pull it off, and the result feels like an elaborate cinematic con-job.

Hollywood.com rated this film 2 stars.