The Fourth Kind (Olatunde Osunsanmi, 2009)

With: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton

Plot: The film purports to tell the true story of Abigail Tyler, whose ordeal with alien abduction in Nome, Alaska is shown in a dramatisation and also with several 'real' archive audio and video footage.

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A tough one to judge, in many ways poor and derivative, it's also curiously memorable. I have to admit the obviously fake footage had me going for a little while, as the film executes the most elaborate hoax I've ever seen. It has not only the film's actual director in a mock-serious interview with Abigail Tyler (probably overplayed, and the leading cause of figuring out it's all fake), but also Jovovich sashays up to the camera, introduces herself and swears blind that what we're all about to see is true. A lot of this seems to be for marketing reasons (in the same way Blair Witch became legendary by fooling early viewers it was real), and it's a shame it isn't kept that way as there is just too much 'real' archive footage to be interesting or convincing, especially stuff like a man murdering his wife and child as police surround him, which obviously wouldn't have been recorded or allowed in a mass-market film. Aside from this gimmick, played with in 24-style split-screen effects that contrast the fake and real footage, there's little to really admire, apart from the usual alluring B-Movie presence of Jovovich and some nice footage of Alaska. Despite a lack of credibility and originality, it remains compelling in a way, and even had me looking on the internet when I got home to see if there was even a grain of truth in it.

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