Every person has their own perception of alien contact. Whether you believe alien abductions are real is up to you. But what if evidence appeared right before your eyes that alien contact had been made, that there are records collected which show that a number of people have been abducted for years? Would you believe it now?

 Every year since the 1960s, there have been reports of disproportionate numbers of missing people in the small town of Nome, Alaska. In 1972, the government established a measurement for alien encounters. This measurement varies from a scale of one to four. The first is when a UFO is sighted, the second is when evidence is collected, the third is when actual contact is made with extraterrestrials, and finally the fourth kind is abduction.

“The Fourth Kind” is a thrilling movie based on real encounters of alien abduction. The first scene opens with psychiatrist Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovivich) recalling her husband’s death; the director (Oltunde Osunsanmi) split the screen in two using the archived video on the left and the reenactment film on the right. Tyler, who lives in Nome, starts to experience strange events; all her patients have been experiencing the same bizarre dreams. In their dreams, there is the same figure of a white owl with deep midnight blue eyes staring straight at them. The figure of the owl is not quite scary but when the camera focuses on its midnight blue eyes you can’t help but be caught off guard.

The patients never want to fall asleep not only because the owl disturbing them but also because the dreams cause dreadful actions. The events that take place after the owl dreams are horrid and terrifying.  Tyler’s first patient that cracks goes insane and not only takes his own life but also the lives of his family members. This chilling scene is doubly disturbing shown again in a split screen with the actual archived video from the police on the left and the reeacted film on the right. Tyler becomes rattled and uneasy when she too starts to experience horrid dreams. Her second patient starts to levitate during a documented video recording of sleep hypnosis.  The footage is scratchy and blurry and a loud screeching noise appears in the background.  Once the experience is over, the patient is left paralyzed from the neck down. This scene is so unexpected it leaves you literally with your mouth wide open.

When the police become involved  they hold Tyler accountable, since she’s the only one they can blame. The events are almost too unreal.  It is obvious the only one person the police can point their fingers at is Tyler.

She suffers through the experience of the whole situation: dealing with police accusations, the effect on her patients, the harsh reality of her husband’s death, and the toll it is taking on her broken family. The abduction does not stop with her patients- Tyler also becomes a victim of this strange crime.

The film has a way of capturing the viewer along with its remote story line and real footage to give fiction a taste of reality. It is so thrilling it’s almost hard to believe. Once the viewer is done watching, many may question the validity of the movie. Would you really believe something so outrageous? Director Osunsanmi (“Smokin’ Aces”) has again done a great job of leaving his audience not knowing how to comprehend what they just saw.