castlekc4
I think the bad reviews are from people that believed it was real, and were embarrassed to admit they were " tricked" . This is a Hollywood rendition of a story , real or not . It was masterfully done , unnerving and disturbing , as good horror should be . I loved it!
cricketbat
The Fourth Kind just tries too hard. It tries too hard to be scary and it tries too hard to prove how "true" the story is. This movie has some creepy moments, but overall it's kind of a mess. I think the trailer is better than the movie itself. If you want to see a good alien abduction story, watch an X-files episode.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
One should go into The Fourth Kind aware of a single important fact: Despite claiming to be based on a true story, and featuring numerous realistically creepy candid accounts, it's essentially entirely made up stuff. People seemed to have a huge bee in their bonnet about that, but curiously weren't bothered by it in The Blair Witch Project, another film guilty of the same gimmicks. Cinema is make believe anyways, and if the story works, then what does it matter. This is one of the scariest films I've ever seen, thanks to a few well orchestrated and very bizarre moments that transcend what usually gets passed off as horror these days. It tells the alleged story of several incidents and encounters with paranormal beings in and around Nome, Alaska, from the perspective of psychologist Abigail Tyler, played by Milla Jovovich in elaborate, atmospheric reenactments, and by Charlotte Milchard in terrifying newsreel testimonials. Something has come to Nome, and is causing not only disappearances but very, very weird behaviour among the townsfolk, and a general aura of poisonous unease. Abigail does her best to work with patients and locate the source ofnthe trauma without losing her mind or having an encounter herself. Her patients babble and rave, but there's consistency to their claims, prompting her further belief and summoning of other experts, including a language specialist (Hakeem Kae Kazim) and an old colleague (Elias Koteas), who are equally as stumped. The town sheriff (Will Patton) believes her to be a complete whacko and does everything to hinder her efforts at every turn. Patton starred in another film that's very similar to this, Mark Pellington's The Mothman Prophecies, and his grave presence only perpetuates the same kind of eerie supernatural vibe, albeit far closer to outright horror than Mothman. The way the film shows the 'real' Abigail sometime following the events chilled me to the bone. She's broken, haunted and speaks as if there's a stain on her soul from some otherworldly force. The film knows what gives people that creeping, cold dread fear that we seek so desperately in the genre, and gave me a fair helping of it. Whether or not the story is even remotely true is trivial; they've made a gruesomely scary tale out of it, and that's what's important. Also, you'll never look at owls quite the same way after seeing this. Top shelf horror.
