According to a scale of measurement developed in 1972, there are four kinds of alien encounters. The first kind is a UFO sighting and the second is gathering evidence of a UFO such as discovering a crop circle in your corn field. We are already familiar with the (Close encounters of the…) Third kind thanks to Richard Dreyfuss and his magical piano-playing skillz, which is when contact is made with extraterrestrials. We are not, however, familiar with the Fourth kind which is alien abduction. This is not a warm, fuzzy, touchy feely sort of encounter.
This film uses documentary-style interviews mixed with re-enactments of these interviews as well as psychology counseling sessions. Often these two frames are split-screened and the effect is very convincing.
Set in the beautiful state of Alaska this story centers on a psychologist, Abigail Tyler (played by Charlotte Milchard and Milla Jovovich), who is mourning the very recent death of her husband, Dr. Will Tyler (Julian Vergov). She has a daughter, Ashley (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and a son named Ronnie (Raphaël Coleman). Her daughter seems to be suffering from hysterical blindness resulting from the loss of her father. Her son is suffering nothing. Her son, quite frankly, is a little pissant who deserves a slap, just sayin’. He is constantly undermining her and often blames her for things that go wrong.
Will was investigating the disturbances of a number of his patients who were suffering from insomnia resulting from visions of a white owl. Abigail decides to continue with this research and engages the help of a language specialist, Awolowa Odusami (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) and fellow shrink Dr. Abel Campos played by Elias Koteas.
Abigail videotapes her sessions and begins to uncover a terrifying realization when some of her patients choose to undergo hypnosis to uncover the cause of their sleep disturbances. She uncovers a similarity in a number of her patients when they not only mention the same owl but when, under hypnosis, they frighteningly declare “It’s not an owl!”
The more deeply Abigail probes into the disturbances of her clients, the more it attacks her personally as well as everyone involved. After one particularly disturbing hypnosis session, a client proceeds to go home and murder his entire family before shooting himself in the head. Shortly after, a second client shows up at her office demanding hypnosis. At this point Abigail realizes that a dark force is at work and she doesn’t want to open up the memories in another person that are so disturbing as to cause such violent behavior. She does it anyway.
The events that come after are more shocking and more violent and will leave you sitting at the edge of your seat with a box of Kleenex nearby. As the end credits roll, they tell the story of a woman who has lost everything and discovered nothing.
I was impressed with the believability this film had and how involved I got in Abby’s perils. I really felt sorry for the havok these encounters wreaked on her life. In the end, you are left with the question of whether or not these events are real. I don’t think the important question is are these events real but are any alien encounters real?
