The Fourth Kind: Exploited Tragedy
A lot of buzz (or should I say marketing) is being made for the new Universal Pictures movie “The Fourth Kind”. The movie is being portrayed as factual and a sort of documentary of the mysterious disappearance of several residents in Nome, Alaska. Placing the blame on aliens. Hence the movie title.
Now, for some real facts about Nome.
The 40 year old Nome mystery is full of government conspiracies and cover ups. At least this is what most conspiracy theorists say.
It’s true that there has been a rash of disappearances in this remote part of Alaska. About 24 people have been reported missing in the mid 2000s. Are alien beings to be blamed for this? NO. Not according to the FBI.
When the FBI stepped in to investigate the case, FBI profilers dismissed the rumors of a potential serial killer that many thought was stalking the residents in Nome. According to the investigation done by the FBI, “alcohol consumption and a harsh winter” was to blame for most of the missing persons reports. They had ruled out a serial killer due to the fact that most of the cases were accidents or of criminal nature. Most involved alcohol. From Anchorage Daily News for the date of June 30th 2006:
“Of the 24 cases, three are being left alone at the request of families, two had already been prosecuted criminally, and one was a snowmachine accident, said Nome Police Chief Craig Moates. In nine of the cases, a re-examination of available evidence produced “definitive outcomes, ” Moates said. He said alcohol was a common factor in those cases.”
So with most of the cases being explained away because of crime, accident or runaways where did the alien theory come in to play?
Olatunde Osunsanmi is the writer and director for the film. He’s fairly unknown and has directed two other movies:
Etat (Nigerian political movie)
Within (straight to DVD horror)
The movie “The Fourth Kind” is a play on Nome disappearances, written to add to the mystery. Osunsanmi might have made a bad decision writing such a script. I can see why many people could be upset at the fact that their family member’s disappearance is now twisted up in some Hollywood crap about aliens taking them away. I would be, I mean…not only is Hollywood being insensitive about the situation and fictitiously creating some absurd story about people’s misfortunes being caused by aliens, but they are also passing this off as being true and creating a fictitious story behind it. We all know that not everyone that goes to watch these movies are critical thinkers.
Take this website for example:
AlaskaNewsArchive.com. When you do a Google search for “Nome Alaska UFO” or something along those lines, this is one of the first sites to pop up.
It’s supposed to be a website that archives the daily news for Alaska. Looks legit. Some of the news entries go as far back as 1997. Now, I did a quick WHOIS on the domain name and guess what?
Registrar: FastDomain Inc.
Provider Name….: HostMonster.Com
Provider Whois…: whois.hostmonster.com
Provider Homepage: http://www.hostmonster.com/
Domain Name: ALASKANEWSARCHIVE.COM
Created on…………..: 2009-08-12 16:44:47 GMT
Expires on…………..: 2010-08-12 16:44:47 GMT
Last modified on……..: 2009-08-12 16:44:47 GMT
The domain was registered on August 12th, 2009.
Although the website does have legit articles and news reports, it’s odd that the majority of them focus on UFO related information.
The movie is supposed to focus on Dr. Abigail Tyler. The following is taken from IMDB:
“psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler began videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and unwittingly discovered some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.”
I did a search for Dr. Abigail Tyler on Google and came up to History’s channel website. Where a forum thread in the “UFO Hunters” section had been going on about the so called doctor. It turns out that if you dig deeper, the only reference to this doctor is from a website called “Medical Journal Archive“.
Another WHOIS reveals expected results:
Domain Name:ALASKAPSYCHIATRYJOURNAL.ORG
Created On:13-Aug-2009 21:13:03 UTC
Last Updated On:13-Oct-2009 03:56:32 UTC
Expiration Date:13-Aug-2010 21:13:03 UTC
So it’s apparent that the new way of marketing these types of movies is to create fictional characters and story lines and and pass them off as legit. Where’s the problem in that you say?
The problem lies in the fact that these tactics are selfish and assume that the mass audience is made up of ignorant and gullible people.
Creating fictitious websites with false information regarding real life tragedies is crossing the line in my opinion. What’s next? Zombies are to blame for the incident at Chernobyl? I guess we should be on the lookout for Wikipedia having references to this in order to boost ticket sales.
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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The family cat went missing for about a week, so I could write a story claiming he was abducted by aliens and that said story is based on actual events: we have a cat, he went missing on the night of 3 October 2009, and showed back up — out of the blue! — on the evening of 9 October 2009. Those are all facts and they remain facts regardless of what substance I use to fill in the gaps between the facts. So “Based on Actual Events” always smell like
weasel words to me.
way to dig and way to put 2 plus 2 together correctly, javier.
this is yet another (pathetic) example of someone trying to profit from the current paranormal television trend with no regard for the actual psychological well-being of the very real families involved.
Creating fictitious websites with false information regarding real life tragedies is crossing the line in my opinion.
i agree. it crosses a line as does taking advantage of psychologically traumatized families/children in the name of “paranormal research” or “psychic powers” in order to garner TV ratings or movie audiences to make a buck.
another line-crossing takes place in the paranormal field when psychics hover like vultures over missing persons cases and attempt to get media attention to advertise their “for entertainment purposes only” wares.
bellaboo,
I think Sylvia Browne is notorious with this.
Then again I heard from some Wiccan/Psychic circle that she is not taken seriously in the community.
Hey Javier,
I think I’m gonna go see it regardless. It looks like it could be a good movie.
Thanks for covering this, as always, this site rocks.
G
“We all know that not everyone that goes to watch these movies are critical thinkers.”
This is an unfortunate reality. However, I do think it’s going to be a good movie as long as it’s kept in perspective.
Glynis,
Thanks for the comment.
Let us know what you think of the movie. I’m always open to any film, but something about this one makes me not want to watch it.
I could be wrong, so let us know.
-Javier
that was really good journalism bro
Fantastic evidence Javier.
KOZ,
Thanks!
Let’s see how well this movie does. Seems like most of the creative thinking went to marketing as opposed to the script.
-Javier
I’m so glad you did you’ve found this information…I just knew this was another Blair witch…
Great Job!!!
Ugh, just got back from watching this piece of crap. (Got advanced screening tickets). They just cram it down your throat that this is all real. CRAM CRAM CRAM. It is soooo bad. Not the movie, or the premise. But the way they try to force you to believe that it is true. And you know it isn’t. They tried to pass out fliers after the movie to support the “facts” in hopes of generating more buzz and it was just the same BS they spewed in the movie. I have never seen anything like this and hope never to again.
John,
I’ll take your word and skip this movie.
Sad.
-Javier
Just say an advanced screening today. Wow it definitely rattles the nerves lol. I want to know if it’s real where did they get the footage and why is there nothing about it online? When you search for it you end up right back at the movie trailer. I want more info. Great movie though!
I actually went to watch this movie. I think it was sort of creepy in a way, so I liked it. I actually do believe the story because they have actual footage and I was watching in the t.v. once that aliens can exist or whatever, because even in a biblical painting, theres two people and in the back you can see a UFO.
I do kind of believe in that whole alien thing though, now.
I just watched it online and it keeps you on your toes, that makes it a good movie. It is kind of like the blair witch move, but better will mila in it. I thought it was good, fun to watch. does not matter if we believe in alien abduction or not. It was fun to watch and kept my attention. I like the star wars to but I don’t think there are Jedi knights there in the univers anywheres. Come on, it’s a movie, just watch it and have fun imagining. That’s what movies are for so we can escape real life and be entertained. I was entertained with this movie. I recommend it.
i will have to keep that in mind when i go see the movie! good detective work J’
You know what irks me about this movie…people aren’t gonna like barn owls anymore…poor little fellas. Oh and it should be noted that the biggest lie in this movie was the fact they were trying to sell that the “Doctor’s” own daughter was abducted. Now thats some real crap! I dont care how money hungry Hollywood is, to make people believe a child was involved is pretty bad. Oh and to answer another post…the “actual footage” isnt actual footage. Its footage based on story, so in short that could be footage based on heresay..starting to see how things could be manipulated?
Actually the movie was pretty interesting, and showed what was called “actual footage.” I wouldn’t label people as not being “critical thinkers” because of the fact that they keep their mind open to many possibilities in this world. Albert Einstein thought “Dark Matter” existed and there was no evidence of this until after his death. It is now being studied by many researchers in the field. As the host, it seems that you are a cynic, not a critical thinker. It will take more than your blogs and simple googles to discredit any form of argument. Do some actual research and interviews and then you will get some respect. Earn the right to call yourself a critical thinker. On a good note, it seems you have a good start on something that could be great if you commit yourself to some real research. It is easy to discredit conspiracy theories because they usually lack evidence, it takes more work and risk to prove them to be true.
“I wouldn’t label people as not being “critical thinkers” because of the fact that they keep their mind open to many possibilities in this world.”
The problem is, “Critical Thinker”, is that people like Stacy DO NOT think critically after they are shown something that perpetrates reality! Listen to what she says: “I actually do believe the story because they have actual footage and I was watching in the t.v. once that aliens can exist or whatever, because even in a biblical painting, theres two people and in the back you can see a UFO.” That is NOT critical thinking. That is believing whatever you are told because “some movie” or TV show says it is real. Her argument would be that there are “real” websites and footage to back it up! You say: “It will take more than your blogs and simple googles to discredit any form of argument. Do some actual research and interviews and then you will get some respect.” He has my respect. He refused to be a lemming and actually DID the research. PROVING that this movie, at least, IS fake. Something Stacy refuses to believe because of her LACK of critical thinking.