I don’t know how much The Fourth Kind is on anyone else’s radar (maybe you’ve seen/heard the ads playing right now on Theater Hopper – sorry about that). Regardless, the execution of this film has me interested.
Basically, the film sets itself up as a dramatic retelling of actual events that were said to transpire in Alaska in the 1970s. Several people have been abudcted for years without any clues to their disappearances. Several years later, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler (played by Milla Jovovich) is video taping disturbed patients who are subjects in a sleep study. Under hypnosis, they reveal that they have been subjected to alien encounters and experimentation.
What the film does next, I think is genius. It splices in some of Dr. Tyler’s “real” videotaped footage of the hypnotized patients in with the Hollywood version and it creates a layer of fear and doubt that starts to mess with you a little.
If you do a little digging, you’ll find some controversy around The Fourth Kind, but I think it’s the appropriate amount of controversy to stir interest in the film and get the audience to ask sincere questions about the veracity of what they’re watching.
When you think about movies like Paranormal Activity, Rec. or The Blair Witch Project and what they’ve done with “found” footage, The Fourth Kind is playing on another level. It’s presenting to you the “real” footage – framing it in an almost truthful, documentary context – and then contrasts it with the “pretend” version, Hollywood’s dramaticization and leaves it up to the audience to decide.
Smart stuff.
I don’t have much more to say about The Fourth Kind except to talk it up a little bit. I’ve seen ads for it here and there, but I’m not really hearing any buzz. So, if you haven’t heard about it until now, consider yourself informed.
Something else you should consider yourself informed about is the fund raising project I have going on over at Kickstarter to raise money for Theater Hopper: Year Three. I talked about it a little bit on Friday and explained what I’m doing to try and raise money and I’m bringing it up again today. There have been a few pledges over the weekend, but we’re going to need a lot more if we’re going to make goal by December 31. The holiday’s are hectic. Don’t let them get in the way of preventing you from pledging to the cause!
Visit the campaign page at Kickstarter to read more about the project, including details on the rewards you can receive by pledging at different levels!
Incidentally, I just got a copy of Adobe Premiere Effects over the weekend and I’m excited to record a little promo video explaining the project that I can post to the campaign page. I’ll let you know when that’s edited together and ready to view.
I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to put together the video tonight because I still need to watch the 1941 original Wolf Man for The Triple Feature. Since we were kind of rudderless on last week’s show, Gordon, Joe and I agreed that we needed to get back on track and the easiest way to do that was by having all three of us watch the same movie.
So, in a fit of post-Halloween examination, we’re going to discuss the classic versoin of The Wolf Man and use it as a foundation to discuss the 2010 remake starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins when it comes out. I can’t afford to be dead weight on this one.
It’s was a little difficult for me to run down a copy of The Wolf Man to watch before tonight’s show. Cami and I canceled our Netflix account because we were terrible about making time to watch the movies we rented. I think we need the threat of a late fee to make that kind of activity a priority anymore. Either that or I need to buy an X-Box 360 so I can download movies directly from Netflix to my console and watch them when I want to watch them. I don’t know if that would improve my odds of watching these kinds of movies or not?…
Anyway, Gordon pointed out that I can “rent” The Wolf Man online through Amazon On Demand, which I totally didn’t know you could do. It’ll kind of suck being forced to watch it on a computer monitor, but it’s the best option I have right now.
Anyway, be sure to listen to the final outcome tonight at 9:00 PM at TalkShoe.com. It’s always a good time.
That’s about it for me. Feel free to leave your thoughts about The Wolf Man (original or remake), The Fourth Kind or our new Kickstarter fund raising campaign in the comments below!
But are there more than four?
Oh, sure.
In fact, the range of alien encounters is almost infinite.
For examples, encounters of the sixteenth kind - going clothes shopping together.
Or close encounters of the twenty-eighth kind - making a mix tape!
A close encounter of the forty-third kind is a bit of a drag, though.
He changed his relationship status to "It's Complicated?"
WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?
As usual, the answer is get an XBox360. 😉
can’t say that I’ll see the Fourth Kind, but that’s mostly because the supernatural/eerie/horror genre has never been my cup of tea. But the holiday seas of movies is close at hand!
I have been very resistant to getting an X-Box in the past because I have been brand-loyal to Nintendo since my childhood. Only since 2002 have I owned a Playstation.
It’s like moving mountains to try and explain to Cami why having more than one console system is appropriate. I should just go out and buy the damn thing myself. But considering the cost and the time sink a new console can be, that’s the sort of thing you want buy-in on first from a spouse’s perspective.
I read recently that the Netflix integration will soon be available for the Playstation 3 as well, which is also a Blu-Ray player and recently came down a lot in price. If that helps sell the deal better. 😉
Good comic. It also reminded me that when I was a kid watching saturday morning cartoons, “Garfield and Friends” did a gag similar to this one. They listed off a dozen different ridiculous close encounter types, like picking up your dry cleaning and such.
Ha ha ha, good one, Tom! What the hell has social networking done to our society. 😛
It always bugs me when films try to pull this ‘completely real footage’ thing. Like the only way it will be able to get to you is by convincing you that it really happened, not through any effort on the part of the movie itself. I prefer it when they make it look as real as possible (like with Paranormal Activity), but don’t try to patronize the audience by saying it all actually happened. If something can still scare you even when you know the whole thing is completely fictional, then you’ve got some quality horror on your hands.
And go get an Xbox 360. It’s a good thing to have, and I say this as someone who grew up on nothing but Nintendo.
I don’t think I’ll be seeing the Forth Kind. We watched Paranormal Activity last night and some of us got more shaken up than others. Overall, we were all scared. Never before have I been so scared and apprehensive of just a single shot!! Damn that nighttime bedroom shot! Amazing movie by the way, but not for the weak of heart or will. True scares, true suspense. I doubt The Fourth Kind will deliver on that front.
I’ll wait till Shutter Island for my next thrill.