"True" events
The film's trailer states that the story is based on "actual case studies," but does not specify which cases are covered. As a result, much speculation has risen regarding the search for documented evidence from the actual cases and whether or not Dr. Abigail Tyler's is a real person, or just a created figure for use in an internet viral marketing campaign.[6]
On September 1, 2009, an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News tried to debunk the validity of the film's premise, and its relation to actual disappearances that have occurred in and around the town of Nome. However, there still remains a mystery surrounding the deaths of many of Nome's residents, though the general consensus is that the high rate of alcoholism combined with the harsh landscape surrounding Nome may account for a majority of the disappearances.[7]
A Google search for Dr. Abigail Tyler returns a number of blogs and websites discussing the veracity of the claims made in "The Fourth Kind" movie trailer, as well as two websites that contain links to articles about the supposedly real Dr. Abigail Tyler.[8] The two websites are:
http://alaskanewsarchive.com/, and
http://alaskapsychiatryjournal.org/entries/Dr-Abigail-Tyler-Bio.html. Both of these sites contain copyrights of 1997 at the bottom of the page; however, as whois search identifies that both of the websites were created on the same day that the movie trailer was released.[9][10] This has led to speculation that Universal Studios created these websites to confuse the public as part of a viral marketing campaign.[11] A number of people have questioned the ethics of such a marketing campaign, as one of the websites listed above claims to be a news outlet, and the other a medical journal. Comments on a number of websites show concern about how a person seeking legitimate medical resources would be able to tell the difference between a real website and one such as that listed above.[12] Notably, neither site contains any noticeable disclaimer that it is fictional (unlike common practice with similar viral sites), and the Alaska News Archive site also includes links to a number of legitimate Alaska-related websites.