Review of The Fourth Kind (2009) by Tim B — 28 Nov 2010

After waiting weeks to no avail of seeing the movie on the big screen in my part of the area (they had to make way for New Moon, you see) I finally resorted to watching this illegally online. It's not something I enjoy doing (shit quality, longer waits than in a line up etc.

) but in this case, I'm very glad I did and will definitely be buying it when it comes out on video. It took me a few minutes to get into the movie with how it was shot (comparing 'real' footage to reenactments) but I soon got into it once I learned how this was going.

I'm not sure what it is with the 'real footage' gig going on in horror but Blair Witch has been around long enough for this to seem fresh enough. I was fairly intrigued while seeing how scenes played out and got very creeped.

This is the first movie that REALLY got to me in the fear factor this year. Congratulatinos! Not showing much always works for me as my imagination goes insane when I'm not shown specifics in horror movies.

This one took that and ran with it, upping my involvement. The 'self-recognized' actors in the movie were awesome and even though they were 'supposed to be faking,' they were still convincing.

Milla Jovovich gives one of the best performances of her career. She had me siding with her, feeling for her and rooting for her the whole time. GOOD JOB! Elias Koteas does his thing again and still works.

If you dig him any other time, you'll dig him here. The rest of the actors didn't have too enough to do for me to form an opinion, but all stood out and were believable. Olatunde Osunsanmi mixed amateur camera footage with an art-house touch and kept it stylish throughout.

He went a little over the top in parts, but I've never seen anything like this in a movie before so it's good. Very original. The score by Atli Ã-rvarsson kept the movie suspenseful and touching in parts.

Another soundtrack to hunt for! There are certain parts, however, that I'm taken out of the movie. First off, having the director be in the movie was a bad idea, he was the only terrible actor but that hurt the movie's believability.

Should've stayed behind the camera. Showing the 'real footage' blew its cover right there. If people wanted privacy, they wouldn't allow their faces to be shown. I highly doubt the government would let footage like that get released for a studio picture.

I'm also not fond of the ending. It was a little out of left-field and didn't make sense in my stupid brain. But the fact that the movie stayed with me for days afterward should say something.

It moved fast, has great acting, cool directing and was extremely unnerving for me. Forgot Paranormal Activity, I'm saving my money for The Fourth Kind!