"THE FOURTH KIND" - A CLOSE ENCOUNTER MOVIE OF THE MOST UNKIND - AVOID IT!
A Review By Harold Egeln
The new UFO alien abduction science fiction movie "The Fourth Kind" by writer/director Olatunda Osunsanmi is not to be taken as fact nor promoted as a movie based on touted actual alien abduction cases purported to have taken place in and around Nome, Alaska, as discovered through research by skeptical ufologists into the making of this dramatic horror thriller.
The conceit of combining grainy archival "actual footage" of therapy sessions with traumatized multiple witnesses side-by-side with re-enactments is downright deceptive and shamefully misleading.
It leaves dangerous false impressions on the uniformed, especially those who may have had an unexplored or hidden close encounter, and even those informed of the experience who do not yet realize that "The Fourth Kind" distorts and twists a very real experience which bears little resemblence to the inhumane orgy of blood and tragedy that reeks throughout this movie.
The disservice to Ufology and real witnesses (abductees/experiencers) is highly disturbing and the movie is best avoided. When famed Chicago film critic Roger Ebert found out the movie is fictional, although it draws on some well-known elements reported in UFO abduction experiences in general, he was very disappointed.
The questionable existence of psychologist Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler, as played by Milla Jovovich, along with the promoted "actual footage" of Dr. Tyler also played by an actor, clearly appears to be a fictional construction of the moviemakers, using a "Blair Witch Project" fake documentary approach.
The "real" Dr. Tyler, also an abduction victim as revealed in the movie, whose husband commtted suicide because of the alien intrusions and whose daughter is permanently abducted, has not stepped forward and cannot. She is fictional. There are bogus sites on the Internet that hint at her reality but have not offered undeniable proof. The alien wool has been pulled over movie-watchers eyes.
FALSE SCREAM MEMORIES
A trained mental health professional or a seasoned abduction researcher using hypnosis or other relaxation techniques would not allow a client to go through the extreme and wild fear phase shown with violent results in the movie. They would stop short when the client gets fearful.and take them out of the hypnotic state.
Yes, there are audio and video tapes showing hypnotizied abductees recalling apparent experiences in fear and even with their sobs and rare screams, such as the audio tapes of Batty and Barney Hill in the early 1960s. But no researcher has ever reported the extreme reactions as shown in the movie.
The movie gives the false and irresponsible impression (under the guise that this movie is based on actual case studies) that UFO alien abduction witnesses usually go bonkers and turn violent, especially after uncovering the details of their experiences for the first time while under hypnosis, committing suicide and multiiple murders. That is simply not the case as portrayed.
The dissappearance of Dr. Tyler's young daughter after an abduction is definately not a characteristic of the close encounter experience, where targeted people are returned usually within a few hours after being taken.
Only a very few cases reported longer disappearances, such a the five days of Travis Walton in Arizona in the autumn of 1975. Steve Speilberg's classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" movie (1978) portrayed longer abductions with those people returned, based on fiction.
The closest "The Fourth Kind" comes to reality is the screen image of owls, the soft blue light often seen during contacts and the times of nighttime abductions like "3:33." That information is in the public domain.
No aliens nor craft are shown. There are fictional voice recordings of shouting alien voices barking arrogant commands in ancient Sumarian, a nod to Zacharia Sitchin's books. Such language has not been a characteristic of contacts where telepathy is the main venue.
In the right directorial hands, "The Fourth Kind" could have been far superior to that violent sci-fi concoction that ranked fourth in box office receipts ($12.5 million) during the movie's first weekend in theaters nationwide.
Also, the idea that hypnosis alone can uncover hidden alien abductions ignores the fact that a great number of witnesses either are conscioussly aware of their contacts or their memories surface on their own very much like a information time-release process, through triggering events and dreams.
I have already heard from experiencers who, after viewing the movie, believe the "factual basis" of the movie and from those who clearly see through the falsehoods of this claiming to be based on actual cases reported in Nome, Alaska.
The "Anchorage Daily News" in September did research into the movie's origins and claims about disapperances in the area over the years and the existence of Dr. Tyler. Its results came up in contradiction of the movie's premise, unless proven otherwise by the moviemakers, which can be confidently doubted.
Indeed, the contact experience when unprovoked can be very disturbing and even traumatic, as first demonstrated in the first reported U.S. abduction case of the Hills (Sept. 19, 1961) as investigated by Boston psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon, and many other cases subsequently investigated by researchers like Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs and the late Dr. John Mack.
The movie, with its excessively maddening torrent of screams and deadly trail of bloody killings, generated fury in some who have traveled the road of UFO contact for many years, either by personal experience or through extensive investigations.
"The Fourth Kind" - although maybe sincerely claiming to spread knowledge of the experience or deliberately giving it an extreme scary version - is a re-creation of the worst kind, a wicked brew designed to frighten and not to instruct.
If curious, it should be viewed as such when watching the movie, seeing it for what it really is: a science fiction horror thriller drama loosely based on the UFO experience, released six days after Halloween, a 2009 version of saying "Boo!" as done in Orson Wells pre-Halloween radio version of "War of the Worlds" in 1938.
We advise avoid seeing the movie and engaging in far more fruitful activities.
HISTORICAL MOVIE NOTE
The very first UFO movie was made in 1949 and released in early 1950: "The Flying Saucer" - and it takes place in Alaska, with beautiful landscape views and flyovers as also seen in "The Fourth Kind." The classic and hard-to-find movie (I have a copy) was made in the heyday of flying saucer reports when newspapers were full of them.
Back then "True Magazine" said of the black-and-white movie, which predates by nearly two years "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Man From Planet X" out in 1951, "The fllying saucers are real!" The movie opens with actual blaring newspaper headlines of saucer reports in the late 1940s as a woman screams.
The DVD blurb says: "Made during the days of the Red Scare, 'The Flying Saucer' clearly addresses the paranoia and fear of a communist invasion of North America. Filmed on location in the beautiful and breathtaking Alaskan outback, 'The Flying Saucer' is full of intrigue, great special effects, Russian spies, and edge of your seat suspence."
The flying saucer, well shwn through special effects. turns out to be a new rocket-powered machine secretly invented by an American industralist, attracting the attention of both American and Soviet intellgence agencies.
[Review copyright2009©HaroldEgeln/S.P.A.C.E.]
For another review, visit the attached Intruders Foundation link below and read Budd Hopkins excellent review: "The Fourth Kind - A Movie To Avoid." Also read Anne Strieber's non-review, avoiding the movie for very good resaons!
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******* On November 1, a month after a book-signing talk on "Love In An Alien Purgatory: The Life And Fantastic Art of David Huggins" with author Farah Yurdozu and with the artist, Huggins returned to a Disclosure Network-NY meeting at The LGBT Center in Greenwwich Village with a slideshow of his astonishing paintings of his multiple contacts. The second half of the event was a 85-minute preview viewing of the new UFO close encounter documentary "The Hidden Hand" by award-winning professional cinematographer and photographer James Carman of NYC, best known for his feature film "The Night I Kissed Larry Kramer." For more information and a video clip of "The Hidden Hand" visit his web site at www.timetravelerarts.com. The Disclosure Network is having its annual holidays party on Sunday, December 6 at 2 p.m. at the LGBT Center.
More new books from NYC area authors! Coming next year from JEREMY VAENI, UFO Magazine's "Valiens" columnist, moviemaker, popcaster, and Culture of Contact director: "THE SKELTON KEY TO ALL WORLDS" with bookcover art by MELISSA REED.
CEN-NYC is a free news and informational service of S.P.A.C.E. - the Search Project for Aspects of Close Encounters - in New York City, featuring contact news and events of the NYC metro region. The main web-site home page to all of S.P.A.C.E.'s resources and information is at 
The UFO ROUNDTABLE, led by ufologist and artist PAUL GRECO, meets on the first Wednesday of every month in Yonkers at the Grinton I. Will Library, 1500 Central Park Ave., 6:30-8:30 p.m. The monthly programs are free and open to the public. For more information, visit 
Since September 2007 an on-line "NY UFO MEETUP GROUP" based in Brooklyn and founded by JOSEPH CAPP, who has had his own blog spot "UFO Media Matters" [see links list above] has been holding regular Internet meetings. The group has about 80 to 100 on-line members and may soon begin its own investigations. It held a meeting on October 24 at the Skylight Diner in mid-town Manhattan. Plans call for a possible trip to Pine Bush. For more information and to register to attend by joining the meetup group, visit the link below.
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