The Fourth Kind opens with actress Milla Jovovich informing the audience of the disturbing archive footage they are about to see. Jovovich plays the main role of Doctor Abigail Tyler, who is a psychologist doing studies on the possibilities of alien encounters. She explains that the movie retells the story of Dr. Tyler’s studies. However, the credibility of this movie is very questionable, which takes away from the overall terror of this movie.

The movie claims that Dr. Tyler gave an exclusive interview with director Olatunde Osunsanmi for the use of The Fourth Kind. She is releasing videos as a part of her study. They show her patients as well as herself experiencing what they believe to be alien encounters. These videos — ostensibly documentary recordings that show everything from a man levitating in bed to someone killing himself and his family — are played alongside the dramatized Hollywood version of the videos using a split screen. This Hollywood reenactment attempts to enhance the terror the movie is trying to portray, but it does not succeed.

This movie would be extremely terrifying if it had any credibility. The supposedly real footage that was shown during the movie on the split screen is constantly being questioned. It is believed that the movie’s real Dr. Tyler is an unknown actress and the archive footage was staged. The only part of the movie that is definitely real is the question that brought up the possibility of alien encounters: The small town of Nome, Alaska in which the movie is set has an increasingly high rate of missing people. While the movie wants people to believe that alien abductions are to blame for these disappearances, the real cause is believed to be the abuse of alcohol which is popular in Nome.

Another point that raises the controversy of whether or not this movie is real is the fact that several alien encounters take place, yet the aliens are never seen. Whenever the aliens would come into view, the camera mysteriously gets knocked over or the screen turns to static. The voices of the aliens are heard, however. Although they do not speak English, Dr. Tyler conveniently teams up with another doctor who is also a strong believer in aliens who has been working on understanding the language the aliens speak. The absence of aliens, although meant to appeal to the subjective fears of the audience, actually brings up great doubt about whether or not this movie is actually telling the truth about events in Nome.

While it is unclear whether or not Dr. Abigail Tyler and her patients is real or fake, as Milla Jovovich said, what you believe is yours to decide. If you believe that the interview with Dr. Abigail Tyler and her studies were real, this movie might be the most terrifying thing you have ever seen. But if you doubt the realistic factor of the movie, it could strike you as laughable and completely ridiculous. However, the overall uncertainty of the credibility of the movie greatly takes away from the fear factor it would have if it were real with out a doubt.