The words “based on a true story” may not exactly inspire confidence in factual accuracy, but at least you know you’re getting some variation of the truth. What the hell is one supposed to take away from “based on the actual case studies”?
The words “based on a true story” may not exactly inspire confidence in factual accuracy, but at least you know you’re getting some variation of the truth. What the hell is one supposed to take away from “based on the actual case studies”? So sayeth the ads for The Fourth Kind, an alien abduction saga that purports to feature footage that will make your blood run cold, force the hair on the back of your neck to stand up, get cats to meow and so on.
So why not use the “true story” line? Some light Googling reveals the latest viral marketing bonanza. Search for Dr. Abigail Tyler, the woman the film claims lost both husband and daughter to belligerent extra-terrestrials, and you get a couple dicey-looking scholarly papers—published in a nonexistent magazine and reproduced on a site that was registered in August—plus her newish Twitter page. Are actual claims of alien abduction too dull to fuel a creatively marketed would-be blockbuster? If the last prominent alien abduction movie—1993’s Fire in the Sky—is any indication, then the answer is apparently yes.
Not that the film itself doesn’t try its damndest to impersonate verisimilitude anyway. As familiar faces like Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas and Will Patton hold down the reenactments, director Olatunde Osunsanmi constantly cuts—sometimes at the same time via De Palma-esque multiple frames—to the alleged real deal. In these, the “actual” Tyler—ashen, stringy-haired, wobbly-voiced—hauntedly talks of watching aliens gouge her husband as they slept, of watching her daughter be whisked away to a UFO and, most despairingly, of how no authority figure believed her story, despite the presence of questionable (and shrill) video footage. Those mean, ivory tower skeptics didn’t believe her gaping, hole-ridden story, and so now the filmmakers are bringing it to the more discerning minds of multiplex patrons.
Sorry to be a killjoy, but this whole enterprise is pointless. If this tale were true, the filmmakers would be exploiting the crazed ramblings of a clearly psychologically traumatized mental patient, all while forcing the poor woman to relive the incident she’s deluded herself into believing. But if it’s 100% bullshit—and the film only works if we think it’s true—then isn’t it literally nothing more than a calculated lunge for your wallet?
And besides, isn’t Paranormal Activity still playing? D+
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