The Fourth Kind(2009)
Note: This review was originally posted by me on IMDb under another alias.
Wow. I can't believe the panning this film got. Sure it rehashes the Blair Witch "This is real footage" gimmick, but who gives a fuck? Sure it's unoriginal, but you want to know why it doesn't matter? It does everything Blair Witch does wrong, and does it right.
In your face Blair Witch!
As you who have had the misfortune of watching that indie piece of crap are familiar with, it's big claim to fame is that it was the first horror film to use ( fake of course) "Real found footage" ( it wasn't) as well as the first horror film to suggest it's monster but never show it (fine and dandy, if you overlook the many, many horror films that did the same thing many decades before, and better) and to not rely on blood and gore ( overlooking the literal thousands of horror films without a single drop of blood in them ). As any serious horror film fan knows, those claims are all a load of horse shit. But let's just say for a moment that ( neglecting all of the obvious facts and overlooking crucial film history) all of those claims were right. Let's pretend the footage was real, let's pretend the films of Val Lewton never existed, Let's pretend The Last Broadcast and Cannibal Holocaust didn't use the "OMG this is REAL footage people!!!" concept years before, and that Blair Witch really did innovate all the things that it's dumbass fans claim it did. Well you know what?
No! Tell me more!
I don't give a fuck. 'Blair Witch' was a terrible movie anyway, and the fact that so many thought it was real is less a testament to the film's ingenuity, and more to the colossal stupidity of Clinton-era America and Indie film fanboy jackasses that think Worshipping some indie film + Disregarding anything made by a real studio = Sticking it 2 da man mothafucka!!!. Of all the 'subtle' horror films, Blair Witch may just be the most un-subtle ever made.
The Fourth Kind however, has no pretensions of subtlety or innovation. It fully acknowledges that it's a mockumentary that will try it's hardest to scare the living crap out of you, and to lure you (and spice up the story with, as an unfunny robot puppet once said; "Good 'Ol fashioned Nightmare Fuel") in with an obviously bogus William Castle-style gimmick that only-a-moron-could-believe, and it delivers.
Somewhere, I'm smiling.
The film has all the feel of what it pretends to be: A real life event which has "real" footage juxtaposed with "re-enactments". And if you didn't know better, it really is convincing, I can see how the dumbasses thought the filmmakers were trying to make it seem real. The "actress" playing the "real life" woman looks nothing like her counterpart; which provides for a wry commentary on films purporting to be based off true life events that cast super-attractive Hollywood actresses and actors as fairly average, homely people. By imitating this aspect, the film succeeds not just as a horror film, but as a subtle parody of documentaries which rely on re-enactments as well. Too bad most audiences don't have the wits to grasp this.
The film is at it's best in the first half-hour, a real sense of menace and unease is created (the cinematography of the Alaskan mountains is top notch) and the "real" footage that is interwoven in is beautifully crafted. The characters are well-portrayed too and behave like real people, they can't believe what's going on and refuse too once they see proof, trying to find a logical explanation. It's even hinted that the problems might be supernatural, not extraterrestrial in origin. This is awesome, as there's an actual fringe of UFOlogists who believe that "alien' abductions and such are supernatural in origin. For example; In the 70's I had this hilariously crackpot book that suggested that both flying saucers and the Loch Ness Monster were illusions created by satan. This gives the film a really eerie feel. Is it an alien film? A demon film? One woman's descent into insanity? This is awesomely handled.
Yes, it actually exists.
Once it's confirmed that the aliens are real, the film admittedly is weakened, but it still succeeds as an at times genuinely disturbing alien abduction flick. All of the actors do fine, if hammy jobs, creating the feel of a real dramatization. I never liked Milla Jovovich, but she does a fine job here, convincingly creating an unbalanced but sympathetic character. We sympathize at first because we know she's right, but is she really? It's a truly harrowing performance which is a refreshing new take on the old "Is the main character just imagining it?" trope. Will Patton also does a fine job as a despicable sheriff, who, in many ways, really is the villain of the piece, but one with a considerable depth of character. There's also some kid actor who comes just right behind Steve Urkel in face-smackability.
"Now don't say something you can't take back! *HEH*HEH* *SNORT*."
All of this helps to create a tangible atmosphere of horror. It's very similar to watching a good episode of Unsolved Mysteries, and if you enjoy shows like that, I can't recommend this enough. It may be fake and not based off real occurrences, but it still has that eerie, twilight feel that "This is happening somewhere" that the best of those shows create.
But the real reason I loved this film? Simple. It finally ditches all the "benevolent alien" crap we've had to put up with recently. I'm so sick of the belief that if aliens exist they would have grown past violence. Sure, it's an old trope that made for some great 50's sci-fi films like The Day The Earth Stood Still & This Island Earth ( oh, and TIE IS a great film, deal with it you MST3K tards ) and it was great to read all those comic book and pulp stories where people would drive aliens away and find out in the last page that "Oh my god the alien just wanted peace! We are the *real* monsters for driving him away! WAAAA!", but that gimmick is OLD. I'm sick of it. There was District 9, Planet 51, and just recently, the biggest offender; James Cameron's Mein Kampf' for whiggers, furries and hippies called Avatar, or as I like to call it: Avaturd. Brrr. Give me aliens that are evil, bug-eyed, ray-gun toting monsters that abduct scantily-clad babes until some square-jawed hero blows their heads off! That's what alien movies should be! Fourth Kind may not be that, but it comes closer to that awesome formula than all other recent alien movies by depicting it's aliens as EVIL. Hey, people can bitch endlessly about how super-hero films should only be campy and shouldn't be dark(regardless of the source material) and should just have simple black-and-white kiddie plots with no gray areas where no one dies. Well if they can demand simplicity in their entertainment and be complete greasy assholes about it, so can I, only I demand that kind of simplicity in my alien movies. The "superheroes should only be campy and fun!" cult can go jack off to the '66 Adam West show for all I care.
THAT's what I'm talkin' 'bout.
For daring to break away from the crappy 'sympathetic aliens' trend, that alone earns this film my eternal respect. Hopefully there will be more films like this, and finally, man can look up at the night skies again...and shiver. Just like Wells & Lovecraft wanted us to do. And I *always* obey my mustachioed socialists and long-jawed racists.
Mah homeboyz.
So rent this movie and watch it(along with Invaders from Mars, The Thing(both versions) Invasion of the Saucer Men, Not of this Earth, throw in Plan 9 from Outer Space for laughs) cuddle 'round your fireplace(with District 9, Avatar, and Planet 51 as firewood)) with some malt liquor and some spicy cheezits, and take a trip back to when aliens were SCARY. Thank you so much Fourth Kind, on the behalf of all real sci-fi fans, you are a true rarity and a kind of film we need more of.
Heaven.