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Lesley

Grey Matter

Lesley is also a columnist for UFO Magazine. Check it out !

11.11.9

The Fourth Kind

I just returned from seeing The Fourth Kind with my local UFO/Ufology group, many of which have had abduction experiences. Over the week leading up to that, I read numerous reviews of The Fourth Kind and almost all of them were bad. I was not really sure that I wanted to suffer through what sounded like some cheap horror movie.

Also, I was put off by the fact that the promoters tried to make it seem as though it was based on an actual case, when it isn't. Some reviews compared it to The Blair Witch Project, which I personally found to be one of the most boring films ever. Since I enjoy hanging out with everyone and certainly had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, I ended up going and I was glad that I did.

I really didn't expect the theater to be as packed as it was, even with there being over 20 of us, but obviously there are quite a lot of people interested in such things.

First off, so far as entertainment (or I guess "keeping interest" would be a better description) it didn't bore me at all. While a few parts of the film were a bit overboard and likely thrown in to make alien abduction even more frightening, I think that most of the movie conveyed the real fear and confusion that abductees experience. It even touched on the ancient astronaut theory.

After the film, we had a room reserved at a local restaurant and I was very interested to hear what those with their own abduction experiences had to say. I could not judge on that level, since I have no abduction experiences, at least that I remember. They all said that it seemed very real to them. Most of them thought it was a true story.

I know that Budd Hopkins and others think the film is nothing more than fear mongering, but the fact is that alien abduction is just that: frightening to many of those that experience it. There are some in my group that have had experiences that in many ways are more frightening than what is in the film. They didn't feel that it was fear mongering. Now, let me make clear that I realize that not everyone has such terrifying experiences, but many do and there is no reason to try to make it seem less frightening than it actually was or to try to explain it away as a misinterpretation of what actually happens.

Of course, there will be plenty of people that won't like this film: debunkers or those that don't believe in alien abduction, people that want to see aliens and spaceships, people that only believe happy "contact" experiences, people that expect some explanation of why some people have these horrible experiences and/or those that want some hint that there is some higher purpose for abductions. This film did not try to offer any explanation of why such things occur and, in a sense, that was good because they would only be guessing.

Just like I would only be guessing if I said The Fourth Kind seemed real or not. I judged it on a different level (purely entertainment) and left it to people with experience to judge it on the other.

Frankly, I don't quite get why showing alien abduction as a fearful experience is fear-mongering, when it often is a fearful experience. Seems to me, it is just being truthful or at least from what I have heard.

  • Check out Lesley's Blog HERE

    As well as her Beyond the Dial blog