The Fourth Kind is a movie that deals with the alien abduction theory. Starring Milla Jovovich, Charlotte Milchard, Elias Koteas & Will Patton the film, although completely fictional, makes the viewers think that this is based on real life events occurring in Nome, Alaska. The film has two components—dramatization, in which professional actors portray the individuals involved, and video footage purporting to show the actual victims undergoing hypnosis. Towards the latter half of the movie, the two clash and you get a quickened sense of something major happening.

Nome is supposed to be an epi-center of alien abduction as depicted in the film, having more missing people for a town it’s size. Dr. Abigail Tyler has 3 patients who all suffer from insomnia. The 3 also say that each night they see a strange while owl looking at them through the windows. Tyler puts a two patients under hypnosis, and while under, both patients recount similar terrifying stories of creatures attempting to enter their homes. Furthermore, both patients also have bizarre occurrences following the hypnosis sessions.

The patients also speak in a mysterious language during hypnosis, which is later found to be Sumerian. One of her patients goes home and kills his family and then himself as he is unable to adjust to the vivid images of the creatures and what was done to him during the abductions. The sheriff blames Dr. Tyler for goading people who are already traumatized into believing that Aliens abducted them and that she drove her patient over the edge. Abby calls a friend and colleague Dr. Abel Campos to help her out with these cases.

We see her other patient levitate while under hypnosis, creating a scary situation. He also speaks in Sumerian. Later Dr. Tyler reaizes that her late husband, Will Jammeson, who was mysteriously murdered one night in his sleep, leaving her to raise their two children, was killed by aliens and that she herself is an abductee. Later, Tyler’s daughter, Ashley, is abducted. Tyler undergoes hypnosis in an attempt to make contact with these beings and reunite with her daughter. Campos and Odusami, a language expert, videotape the session, and once hypnotized, is it revealed that Tyler witnessed the abduction of her daughter. The camera scrambles, sounds of violence are heard in the background, and a harsh voice yells “Zimabu Eter!” before the camera returns to normal. The remaining footage is of an empty room, the camera’s tripod knocked on its side.

The film cuts to an interview with Tyler in which she explains that all three were abducted during that hypnosis session and none have memory of what happened. The film returns to the aftermath of Abbey’s hypnosis session. She wakes up in a hospital after breaking her neck in the abduction.

The film tricks you into believing that this is based on actual facts. The movie boasts some nice imagery and good eerie scenes – the video shot of the owl’s head turning around almost unnaturally, following the camera. (Owls can rotate their heads and necks as much as 270 degrees in either direction). The acting is good and believable. 6/10 – not bad for a movie made on a budget of $10 mil only.