By Christian Toto - What Would Toto Watch?
Milla Jovovich finally talks to me … me! in the new thriller “The Fourth Kind.”
The lovely actress speaks to everyone in the audience when the movie opens, letting us know parts of what we’re about to see are absolutely true.
Our relationship is so new, so vulnerable, and she’s lying already.
“The Fourth Kind” tries a Frankenstein mashup of found footage cinema and standard horror movie shocks. As novelties go, it’s hardly the worst we’ve seen in recent memory.
The “Psycho” shot-by-shot remake captures that honor.
But a gimmick only works to separate a movie from its peers. The film ultimately must deliver, and that’s where “The Fourth Kind” fails.
Jovovich plays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a Nome, Alaska-based psychologist dealing with several patients with frighteningly similar stories to share.
Each tells her,often under hypnosis, that they are being haunted by owls lurking near their bedroom windows, but that’s only the start of their horror stories.
Tyler soon starts experiencing her own visions, coming on the heels of the sudden death of her husband, Will. Is his death connected to these strange events? And what exactly killed a young, healthy man like Will?
“The Fourth Kind” unfolds in dual fashion. Jovovich and crew, including a Hormel hammy Will Patton, re-enact what we’re told really happened in this Alaskan town. We also see “real” footage of interviews taken with the actual Tyler and some of her patients.
The archive interviews aren’t very convincing, and all you’ll need is a quick google search to see the film’s truth factor doesn’t hold up.
“The Blair Witch Project” also projected a veneer of realism, but wisely backed up it up with old-fashioned chills. The recent “Paranormal Activity” doubled down on the scares with his faux reality videos.
“The Fourth Kind” does manage a few unnerving moments, but they’re buttressed by wan dialogue and increasingly absurd characters.
The concept behind “The Fourth Kind” is novel enough to gin up our interest, but ultimately a gimmick must give way to rock-solid storytelling - something Jovovich and co. neglect to deliver.
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