Reviews
[REVIEW] ‘The Fourth Kind’ (2009) Is One Of A Kind
The Fourth Kind is ‘based on a true story’, which takes place in Nome, Alaska. The story is set through a series of interviews with Chapman University. Doctor Abigail Emily Tyler (Charlotte Milchard) is interviewed by an unnamed interviewer (Olatunde Osunsanmi), who is trying to learn more about a harrowing abduction experience she had. As the audience, you are constantly told, “What you believe is yours to decide.” From here, the story is told through dramatic re-enactments of Dr. Abbey Tyler’s (Milla Jovovich) experiences, and it’s a doozy. Dr. Tyler attempts to put some of her patients through a regressive form of hypnotherapy, which ends up going south in more ways than one. Once her patients start to experience adverse side effects, she finds herself being chased by Johnny Law and an unseen group of Non-Human Intelligence. Can Dr. Tyler survive with her sanity intact?
Found footage is one of the most versatile subgenres around. Throw a handheld camera or a GoPro onto someone walking through creepy woods? Boom. Found footage. Have some security cameras set up in an abandoned insane asylum with a group of intrepid investigators running from a jawless neon-green ghost creature? Boom. Found footage! The branching tree of subgenres within the found footage subgenre runs deep. One of my personal favorite sects of found footage, and this is controversial, is the mockumentary. Some found footage die-hards don’t acknowledge mockumentary as a subsect of found footage, but I don’t listen to naysayers, and today we’ll be discussing The Fourth Kind.
The Fourth Kind and Its “Based on a True Story” Premise
The Fourth Kind is ‘based on a true story’, which takes place in Nome, Alaska. The story is set through a series of interviews with Chapman University. Doctor Abigail Emily Tyler (Charlotte Milchard) is interviewed by an unnamed interviewer (Olatunde Osunsanmi), who is trying to learn more about a harrowing abduction experience she had. As the audience, you are constantly told, “What you believe is yours to decide.” From here, the story is told through dramatic re-enactments of Dr. Abbey Tyler’s (Milla Jovovich) experiences, and it’s a doozy. Dr. Tyler attempts to put some of her patients through a regressive form of hypnotherapy, which ends up going south in more ways than one. Once her patients start to experience adverse side effects, she finds herself being chased by Johnny Law and an unseen group of Non-Human Intelligence. Can Dr. Tyler survive with her sanity intact?
One of the biggest, and most understandable, points of criticism toward The Fourth Kind is how hard writer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi goes regarding the film’s authenticity. Many aspects make this film a great piece of gateway horror, but this might not be one of them. The one piece of truth surrounding The Fourth Kind is how some of the stories are vaguely based on real disappearances and occurrences in Nome, Alaska. This is problematic for a few reasons. Recently The Alaska Triangle has come into the zeitgeist when it comes to discussing Ufology and is widely considered one of the most compelling documentations of legitimate UFO/UAP sightings.
Alaska is also one of the states with the highest rate of domestic violence crimes. Some of the ideas portrayed in The Fourth Kind do feel in pretty bad taste. It’s clear why the residents of Nome, Alaska, and Alaska in general, aren’t too fond of this movie.
Why The Fourth Kind Works as a True Crime Mockumentary
That said, The Fourth Kind is incredibly compelling as a mockumentary and gets the formula right for an aughts true crime piece. Even though the audience is forced to accept the idea of UFOs/UAPs, as the film is told from Dr. Tyler’s perspective, at its core, it’s a true crime mockumentary. It doesn’t break any new ground when it comes to storytelling, but as a mockumentary, it’s incredibly entertaining. Something like The Fourth Kind is an excellent primer for films like Digging Up the Marrow, The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Lake Mungo, and Horror in the High Desert. The Fourth Kind sets the stage for how films like this can flow perfectly while still not falling into too many mockumentary tropes or cliches.
The Fourth Kind continuously cuts to ‘real’ footage and succeeds at feeling authentic, though knowing the truth about Alaska does make some parts feel distasteful. Telling this film through the singular perspective of Dr. Tyler is risky, but the film is better off for it. Honestly, the weirdest part of the film is when Milla Jovovich confronts the camera, as herself, and says, to an extent, everything you’re about to see is entirely accurate. They triple down on this when Jovovich and Olatunde Osunsanmi address the camera directly at the end of the film as well. While it’s not the greatest mockumentary ever made, it feels fresh and original. It sets the stage for the depths mockumentaries can go and is incredibly compelling for it.
Most people find that stretching their dollar still barely gets them by in today’s economy. I am very particular about what I spend my spare money on regarding extracurriculars. And no one likes to feel like their money is wasted. Madame Morbid Trolley Tours wasn’t an experience I had been familiar with. Maybe that’s because I’m chronically offline for most of my life. So this leads to the perfect question: in today’s turbulent economy, is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours worth the price? The short answer is unquestionably, yes. But it’s more than just a simple yes.
My wife and I arrived at the designated meeting point 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. A handful of minutes later, a gorgeous, e-candle-lit trolley pulled up to the side of the road. We were greeted by impeccably on-brand Allison Chase, our tour guide, and trolley driver ‘Mad’ Matt Zaller. The wonderfully cheery duo invited us on the trolley, and the tour was set to begin.
400 Years of Death, Destruction, and Infrastructure
After a welcoming video intro from someone who knows a thing or two about busting ghosts, we set off on the inaugural Madame Morbid Trolley Tour in its ninth year of operation. From the Brooklyn Naval Yard all the way to Dumbo, and more, this tour magnificently chronicles 400 years of history, the good and the bad, expertly. No matter how much you think you may know about Brooklyn history, I can bet there will be something new learned within the first 15 minutes of the tour. From the first-ever plane crash to one of the worst theater fires in history, this tour covers tragedies that the greatest horror writers couldn’t conceive.
The Deadly [Charming] Docent
Allison Chase led the fascinating tour in character from the moment we stepped on the trolley until our departure. But Allison’s character was not forced or fake; you could feel Allison’s passion for not just morbid history, but the accuracy of it. Some of the stories we heard were steeped in historical context, and it was not boring for a single second. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is not your standard full-talking tour. It’s a mixed-media adventure of some of Brooklyn’s darkest moments.
During “downtime” (the times between locations), we were edutained by mini documentaries (that were quite funny). Some of the “downtime” was filled with traffic trivia (I won a needle pen!). And other times were show-and-tell-like, with objects passed around for us to examine. But there was never a moment of silence that wasn’t purposeful. All in all, Allison’s knowledge and passion shone like the luminosity of a full moon.
Is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours Worth It?
The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour was not just a fun night out for my wife and me, but it was a delightfully dark night of edutainment. It should also be noted that ‘Mad’ Matt’s driving skills were fantastic. There was a time when I had become enamored with how Matt handled the narrow streets of Brooklyn before realizing that I needed to refocus my attention on Allison. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is an exceptionally fun evening of horror and history that will make you think twice next time you walk down the streets of Brooklyn. It is worth the money, and then some. There’s no better activity for a cold, dark October night than the Madame Morbid Trolley Tour.
For more information on Madame Morbid Trolley Tours, and to get your tickets, click here!
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should have watched the Stephen King adaptation Cujo a million years ago. First of all, I was a voracious King reader in middle school. The other thing I was obsessed with during those years was Friends. You know, the show that hinges a major episode’s subplot on Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) watching Cujo for the first time. Whatever the reason was, I never got around to it, but I’m rectifying that oversight now.
What is Cujo About?
Cujo tells a relatively simple story. Donna Trenton’s (Dee Wallace) a housewife who’s cheating on her husband Vic (Daniel Hugh-Kelly) with local handyman Steve (Christopher Stone). There’s no accounting for taste, because Vic is 10 times hotter and Steve doesn’t own a bed frame. Look, Donna. I know Vic has that awful David Hasselhoff hair, but I promise the 1980s will end sooner or later. It’ll be OK.
Donna’s attempted termination of this affair ultimately leads to its discovery. Amid this drama, her car breaks down at a mechanic’s isolated farmhouse, trapping her and her son, Tad (Danny Pintauro). You see, the mechanic’s dog, Cujo, freshly christened with rabies, is patrolling the area and attacking everything in sight.
Dee Wallace Is Cujo’s Not-So-Secret Weapon
It would be impossible to start a worthwhile review of Cujo without praising Dee Wallace. The woman is a genre icon, naturally. Think about this: She had only appeared in seven theatrical movies before starring in Cujo. Four of those movies are The Stepford Wives, The Hills Have Eyes, E.T., and The Howling. But this woman didn’t become an icon simply by accidentally stumbling into some iconic titles. She is simply terrific as Donna, using her darting eyes and taut expression to deliver oodles of subtext. You instantly get the sense of how trapped she feels by marriage and motherhood without her uttering a single word.
A good performance is vital, here. Because there’s a hell of a lot of drama to get through before she’s trapped in that damn car. But Wallace instantly shoves you into Donna’s perspective, whether you like it or not. This makes it all the more potent when she is menaced by Cujo. Her desperate attempts for survival, also impeccably performed, have true weight because she seems like a real person. She is also given an incredible scene partner in Danny Pintauro. The future Who’s the Boss? star, who was only six when shooting Cujo, has a perfect everychild quality. His innocence heightens the peril. But so does that fact that he is just as irritating as every six-year-old you’ve ever met.
This movie truly captures how annoying it must be to be stuck in a life-and-death situation with a child. This is a compliment, I swear! Donna is worn down by every aspect of the situation, including her own son’s inability to cope with it. And this ratchets up the tension even further, to an almost unbearable degree.
Cujo Is a Mixed Bag, But Worthwhile Overall
The movie doesn’t work if Cujo himself doesn’t work, and at first I was real worried that he wouldn’t. In the first half, the St. Bernards that play Cujo onscreen are often shown to be wagging their tails in delight. Which kind of undercuts the reality of the situation, I’d say. But the editing and the special effects step in to fix what animal training couldn’t. The attack scenes in the second half are constructed with quick cuts that never let you get too much purchase. It’s a good approach for keeping viewers off-kilter.
Also, Cujo becomes less and less recognizable as a cuddly canine the further the movie gets. It’s a simple trick, really. He ends up getting coated with more and more slime. Saliva, pus, blood, and what have you. This is good for making him feel like a true movie monster. Plus, it’s a good mirror for the sliminess inside the car as it gets covered in sweat, blood, and grime.
The second half of the movie ultimately works like gangbusters. It’s a shame that Cujo is too cowardly to get Donna and Tad in the car before the halfway point. This decision is somewhat faithful to the book’s structure as I remember it. However, it diminishes the weight of the long days that they spend in the car. We really need to feel that crushing stretch of time, and we don’t. When Tad is suffering from dehydration, it’s not a gut punch. Honestly, I just found myself asking, “Already?” It’s good that they gave the movie a happier ending, because the classic grimdark Stephen King finale wouldn’t have landed.
Is Cujo Worth Watching in 2026?
At the end of the day, Cujo is a solid movie and I’m glad I finally watched it. However, it’s not such a stone-cold classic that I’m not at least a little intrigued by that upcoming Netflix remake…
