10 Films That Are Better The Less You Know Going In

7. The Fourth Kind

Films purported to be ‘based on true events’ should always be treated with a certain amount of suspicion, as a cursory glance over Wikipedia will often bring with it a specific section of differences from reality. Whilst some manage to stay very close to the true course of events, some take much more creative license with their approach to ‘truth’, whilst some dispense with the whole concept altogether.

2009’s The Fourth Kind presents itself as a documentary/dramatic reenactment of events surrounding a suspected alien abduction in Alaska, even going so far as to have star Milla Jovovich open the film out of character to explain the role she will be playing. Following psychologist Abbey Tyler, the film shows her hypnotherapy sessions with patients all reporting the same mysterious dreams, later revealed to be the result of alien abduction.

Whilst the film leans heavily on its ‘based on true events’ narrative, shifting between the dramatisations starring Jovovich and archival footage of Tyler’s hypnotherapy sessions, there’s one key bit of information that changes everything about it. None of this is real. The ‘archival’ footage is actually just footage, with Tyler played by uncredited actress Charlotte Milchard.

Going along with the film’s admittedly heavy handed insistence of its accuracy can make the tapes quite an affecting experience, but when the real truth is revealed, the illusion shatters to leave a pretty shaky quasi-found-footage distraction.