Is “The Fourth Kind” real? Is the documentary footage shown in the film real or staged? In the wake of “Paranormal Activity,” is reality horror the new craze?

The new thriller “The Fourth Kind,” which opens with star Milla Jovovich speaking directly to the audience about the movie’s authenticity, has raised some suspicions about the credibility of its claims and supposedly “real” footage. While the jury’s still out 100 percent, it’s safe to assume that the footage used and the alien abduction story upon which the film is based are a total crock. Simply put, it’s fake.

In 2006, the Anchorage Daily News did a story on the disappearances in Nome, Alaska (the town in which the film takes place) and provided the FBI’s conclusions about them. What were those conclusions? That the winter climate and alcoholism were to blame for the disappearances of 24 people over 40 years.

Additionally, All Business‘ article on the matter states that there isn’t even any evidence to support the movie’s main character ever existed at all. The movie uses what it terms “aliases” throughout.

To further propagate the film’s cheap reliance on its dishonest tactic, Universal has released a featurette with “paranormal researcher” Marie D. Jones (embedded below), asserting that the footage used displays genuine signs of alien abductions. Sure, but that’s because that information is only available inside the brains of paranormal researchers! It’s not something that could be found independent of their guidance and replicated in a film.

With films like this and “Paranormal Activity” being widely distributed, the horror pseudo-documentaries might very well become fashionable (or, at least, profitable) again. Let’s hope there’s a change of pace and the next ones to assuredly come out are substantially more convincing.

Tags: alien abduction, documentary, fake, faked, false, fiction, fourth kind, REAL, STORY, THE FOURTH KIND, TRUE

We have passes for you and a guest to attend the advance screening of THE FOURTH KIND on Tuesday, November 3 at 7:30 PM at the AMC Studio 30 (119th & I-35).

All you need to do is fill out the form below. We’ll have a random drawing on Friday, October 30 to determine the winners. Here’s the trailer, website for the film, and a synopsis from the studio:

1n 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien encounters. When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document…until now.

Structured unlike any film before it, THE FOURTH KIND is a provocative thriller set in modern-day Nome, Alaska, where—mysteriously since the 1960s—a disproportionate number of the population has been reported missing every year. Despite multiple FBI investigations of the region, the truth has never been discovered.

Here in this remote region, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) began videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and unwittingly discovered some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.

Using never-before-seen archival footage that is integrated into the film, THE FOURTH KIND exposes the terrified revelations of multiple witnesses. Their accounts of being visited by alien figures all share disturbingly identical details, the validity of which is investigated throughout the film.

THE FOURTH KIND opens nationwide on November 6.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

Tags: advance, contest, early, fourth, free, giveaway, kansas city, kind, movie, passes, screening, THE FOURTH KIND