8/10/10

The owls are not what they seem: A few words on The Fourth Kind

I live under a rock, what can I say?

I just recently made the acquaintance of Olatunde Osunsanmi's The Fourth Kind, and, boy howdy, I was pleasantly surprised.  Yes, yes, I understand the claim that this film is based on a true story is a dubious one at best...well, at least I know that now.   You see, I watched The Fourth Kind with absolutely no idea what I was about to see - none, whatsoever, and because of that I was entertained, intrigued and sufficiently creeped out.

Watching this movie put me in mind of Whitley Strieber's book, Communion.  I thought the same thing after watching The Fourth Kind as I did after reading Strieber's tale of extraterrestrial trickery;  somebody's got one hell of a great imagination, or this really happened.

Maybe it was the  split screen scenes (especially the one where the troubled husband holds his family hostage at gun point), or the Sumerian speaking alien / daemon  recorded on audio tape, or the fucking creepy owls (shades of Twin Peaks), or maybe it was Milla Jovovich playing against type ... or maybe, just maybe, it was good old fashioned effective film making.  

If you have not seen The Fourth Kind, give it a whirl.  If, you have not read up on it, then by all means, DON'T!   Wait until after you've seen it before you try to deconstruct it.  Maybe, then, you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

8 comments:

Prospero said...

I'm honestly surprised you liked this movie. "Communion" covers the same ubject matter in a much more entertaining way (but then, it has Walken). I found it boring and even a bit silly.

Pax Romano said...

Prospero, see that's the thing; I read Communion, but never saw the movie. So, i guess The Fourth Kind sort of helped bridge that gap for me. I really enjoyed it. But to each his own!

Spike Ghost said...

i really liked this movie too. I was aware it wasn't true, but it didn't ruin it for me. It's really creepy and even scary at times. Olatunde handles that movie really well. But yeah i understand why many people were turned of by the whole "IT'S TUUUEEE, IT'S TRUUUUUUUEESS, BELIEVE IT" but i would really like to see him on a "normal" horror movie. (by notmal i mean without the Split-Screen and the "based on a true story" thing.

Sadako said...

I've never seen it, but I kind of want to. I was thinking it looked a little silly but fun...

Ninja Dixon said...

People seem to forget that there was a lot of buzz that The Blair Witch Project was true too - and now it's considered a classic in the mockumentary-biz. I still think it's quite a good movie.

The Fourth Kind is a damn fine little movie. I love the way the filmmakers fuck with your head, with not only creating a movie, but also a fake "real" movie within in the movie - and it looks great.

I'm sure that in, let's say ten years, it will be considered an underrated, over-looked classic.

Fred [The Wolf] said...

I didn't enjoy this film at all and found myself bored as hell watching it. But I respect that you enjoyed it.

Simon said...

Everyone hates this movie so much, and I don't know why. It's pretty scary, whether it was faked or not. Split screen was distracting, yes, but it made me buy the reenactments.

I Like Horror Movies said...

I'm leaving this one to you as well Pax, I kinda wanted to snap the Netflix in half to ensure that no one else would see it. I just didnt get the concept of faking footage twice just to include an annoying split screen effect of two falsified images.