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Abduct Tapes

The makers of "The Fourth Kind" - director Olatunde Osunsanmi's teasingly effective thriller - went with an interesting title. Even moderately attentive film fans will recognize it as a reference to the types of alien encounters made famous by Steven Spielberg's 1977 "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (after sighting, evidence and contact, there's abduction). But this isn't a sequel to that sci-fi gem. Nor is it just another alien invasion movie. "The Fourth Kind" aims to do for alien abduction what "Paranomal Activity" did for hauntings. And to a large degree, it succeeds.

Milla Jovovich plays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist in Nome, Alaska. We know this because Ms. Jovovich, the actress, bluntly (almost blandly) states it to the camera in an opening monologue that sets the film's tone. Mr. Osunsanmi intends to dramatize the true story of unexplained events that occurred in Nome in the early 2000s. And he has a pile of archival video and audio tape to support his attempt.

Nome, it seems, has played host to a series of unexplained disappearances as well as thousands of FBI visits. Dr. Tyler's story starts when a group of patients with sleeping problems reports repeatedly seeing the same white owl in the middle of the night. Each patient agrees to undergo hypnosis to find the cause. The first to go under is Tommy. While describing the previous night's sleeplessness, Tommy declares he was wrong about the owl. There was never an owl. Then he gasps. Something's outside his bedroom door...

On the surface, this scene might appear to be the setup for a, shall we say, "cheesy" horror flick. But Mr. Osunsanmi has something different in mind. Though most of the film is a dramatization, the writer-director makes the clever decision to use actual footage to show the most wildly unexplained moments - in particular, the hypnosis sessions. And that footage, with its grainy, jittery plainness, is nothing short of chilling. It's best not to describe it here, but it's a tribute to Mr. Osunsanmi, a relative newcomer making his US feature debut, that he's able to juggle the real and the reenactment so seamlessly.

The director also shows a winking understanding (and acceptance) of his mixed-media conceit, gleefully showing Ms. Jovovich in split-screen opposite the real-life Dr. Tyler. Ms. Jovovich, continuing to embrace her B-movie crown, is as perky as ever, while Dr. Tyler, clearly the worse for wear, is subjected to harsh video lighting. After all those clever choices, it's a shame Mr. Osunsanmi relies a bit too heavily on jarring soundtrack jolts. But that can be chalked up to inexperience, or a nervous studio having final cut.

Now, all this assumes that the "actual footage" in "The Fourth Kind" is actually footage. Could it be that this is all a "Blair Witch" style hoax? Well, if the film sends you running to Google to find out, that has to count for something. As for me, to quote another well known fan of the paranormal, "I want to believe."