Published 23:32, November the 5th, 2009
We want to believe
‘The Fourth Kind’
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Will Patton
Rating: PG-13
Grade: ➊➋➌➍➎
These days, the vampires are hot, the zombies are funny and if you’ve lived in this city long enough, the weirdos don’t bother you. But even the skeptic has to admit that there are a lot of dark, creepy corners in the universe that could be harboring aggressive ETs.
“The Fourth Kind” takes full advantage of this, claiming to be based on “actual case studies” and even incorporating footage of counseling sessions of suspected abduction victims. Throughout the film, director Olatunde Osunsanmi interviews a vacant woman claiming to be Dr. Abigail Tyler, an Alaska-based psychiatrist whose patients and archived footage supposedly inspired the film.
If you want your money’s worth, don’t think about it too hard — or do any Google homework.
The backstory
“The Fourth Kind” takes place in Nome, Alaska, a town that (if you believe Osunsanmi’s story) had a troubling number of sleep-deprived residents in the fall of 2000. Under hypnosis, Dr. Abigail Tyler’s patients recalled alien abductions, all of which began with a mysterious white owl.