‘The Fourth Kind’ A Case of More Hollywood Hype?
by Marc Patterson
First there was The Blair Witch, and now we are finally moving past Paranormal Activity. Just around the corner? The Fourth Kind. Get ready for the hype, because it’s coming. Hold that thought. It’s here. I just moments ago became “followed” by their official Twitter page. I’m a nice guy. I followed them back.
Instead of relying on strange witchy happenings in the woods, or house hauntings, (you know, anything of an earthly sort) The Fourth Kind, from Universal, takes us to a new dimension injecting a healthy dose of “based on a true story” alien abduction styled hysteria into our mundane lives. I can’t wait for all the UFO nuts to hit the web in force. When was the last good “fact based” alien story? Fire in the Sky?
This film is centered on the “real life” psychologist Dr Abigail Tyler, portrayed by a very straight laced and serious Milla Jovavich, who in the film treats a variety of patients who have claimed to experience something from the fourth dimension, that being actual alien abduction, as opposed to the third kind, which is simply contact. Interlaced with the high production re-dramatization is actual archival footage meant to support what we are watching go down on, and naturally add to our innate sense of horror.
The trailer is short of unnerving, yet it’s intriguing enough to want to see, despite the PG-13 rating. And Jovavich is always a ticketworthy performer.
But what’s the truth behind this story? Is there any? Or has Hollywood put their signature “truth stretched thin” twist to push yet another fantastic tale onto the masses? Surely just as The Blair Witch sent flocks of people into the woods around Burkittsville Maryland to the point where local police got involved with pushing people away, The Fourth Kind is likely to raise some eyebrows and get the fingers of cinema-goers Googling. When I began to do some digging on this I found a small handful of recent articles from trustworthy sources that unveiled some rather interesting results.
According to an article in Anchorage Daily News “No one has heard of the psychologist, including the state licensing board and president of the state psychologists association.”
In another article published recently by The Wall Street Journal they point out that “There’s a bio of Dr. Abigail Tyler on the Web, mentioning an article she published in the June 1997 issue of the American Journal Psychiatry. But neither Tyler’s employer nor her alma mater is listed, the journal’s name is rendered incorrectly (it’s American Journal of Psychiatry) and a colleague mentioned in the bio, Dr. Samuel Burden, M.D., appears only in association with references to “The Fourth Kind” if searched for on-line”
So okay, maybe there isn’t really a Dr. Abigail Tyler. But that doesn’t discount the fact that upwards of twenty folks have gone missing in or around this area of Alaska since 1960.
The FBI seems to have ruled out that these disappearances were due to abduction. In fact, the idea of alien abduction seems to be completely fabricated by Hollywood writers and exec’s. Going back to the Anchorage Daily News: “The FBI stepped in, reviewing two dozen cases, eventually determining that excessive alcohol consumption and the winter climate were a common link in many of them. Unlike other commercial hubs in rural Alaska, Nome is a “wet” city, with bars and liquor stores.” The article continues. “Some of dead were killed by exposure or from falling off a jetty into the frigid Snake River, authorities said at the time.”
Okay, so there’s no Dr. Tyler, and there are no apparent abductions. Just a string of missing persons cases, which by the way includes the possibility of some serial killings. The upside to this? The trailer still makes the film look pretty damn watchable. And don’t let the facts dismay you. A well-told story is still worth being told, even if it’s only remotely based on truth. And the real upswing? Unlike those poor saps in Burkittsville, it’s a good thing Nome Alaska isn’t a quick or easy drive for any of us.
View the trailer below. The Fourth Kind hits theaters nationwide November 6, 2009
