The Fourth Kind

Saw a trailer for this movie over the weekend (right before the craptastic Paranormal Activity), and they are trying to play up the "based on a true story" aspect to a really ridiculous extent (possibly in line with the popularity of movies like the current Paranormal Activity sensation) by going so far as to show A/B footage of the original interviews and the recreated interviews in the film.

For those who don't know, according to Wikipedia, "the film is purported to be a documentary reenactment set in Nome, Alaska, and deals with alien abductions."

The first thing that sends my skeptical bells screaming is the fact that the "original footage" they are showing is just people being interviewed, apparently under some sort of hypnosis or, at least, relaxed state. This is apparently what the film makers would like us to believe is strong proof of the phenomenon of alien abduction, but it makes me sad that they could even use it in their marketing to imply such to the public- do people really think impassioned accounts of wild tales, especially from people who appear to be in an altered mental state, is good evidence of a phenomenon? I think way too many people really do still believe such anecdotes; the human emotion to believe someone who is so emotional and confident about something is very strong.

On top of all this, Wikipedia also goes on to say "The film's trailer states that the story is based on "actual case studies," but does not specify which cases. As a result, much speculation has arisen regarding the search for documented evidence from the actual cases and whether Dr. Abigail Tyler is a real person or a fictional character for use in an internet viral marketing campaign."

So this might all be BS anyway. I was certainly suspicious that this was supposed to be so compelling but I have never even heard of the cases, and I was a Big Fan of aliens, paranormal, etc when i was growing up and now I am a Big Time skeptic of such things, so I am pretty familiar with any of the mid to large stories of the genre.

On a related note, the fact that the trailer states there are actual case studies but doesn't specify them points to a larger breakdown in our critical thinking as a society- I realize that a trailer is an unrealistic place to look for citations, but I will follow up with a blog at a later date on the problem of lack of citations because it is a huge problem with how people believe nonsense. I have gotten to a point where I call people out at soon as they start an argument that has a specific claim and they can't back it up because I have been in way too many pointless arguments where people make claims they can't even support.

Whether these accounts actually occurred, the bottom line is that the exceedingly gripping testimony of an unlikely claim from people is not compelling in the absence of corroborating evidence. If you are claiming that beings are traveling interstellar distances to sneak up to your window, hang around outside and then take you away and put you back without anyone knowing, then you better have something other than stories if you want me to believe it.

Oh, and if it is marketing hype and Milla is looking right into the camera and telling us it is true, then she is pretty crappy in my book.