Rent Dark Encounter (2019)
2.5 of 5 from 76 ratings
1h 34min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A year after the mysterious disappearance of their 8 year-old daughter, grieving Olivia (Laura Fraser) and Ray (Mel Raido) return home with friends and family from her memorial service. Suddenly, strange lights appear in the nearby forest and everyone is exposed to inexplicable phenomena, shaking them all to the core. The origin of these weird incidents seem to be visitors from another world intent on terrorising the family and eventually lead them to an unexpectedly dark and disturbing truth.
- Actors:
- Laura Fraser, Mel Raido, Sid Phoenix, Grant Masters, Spike White, Alice Lowe, Nicholas Pinnock, Vincent Regan, Sean Knopp
- Directors:
- Carl Strathie
- Producers:
- Carl Strathie, Charlette Kilby, Alan Latham
- Writers:
- Carl Strathie
- Aka:
- Transience / The Encounter
- Studio:
- Signature Entertainment
- Genres:
- Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
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Reviews (2) of Dark Encounter
Mesmerising sci-fi thriller - Dark Encounter review by Alphaville
Spooky sci-fi movie begins in melodrama mode as an extended American family gathers and squabbles in a house in the woods. Then weird things start happening. Unnatural lights and noises. People disappear. A lesser film would descend into horror territory, but this evolves into an engrossing mystery thriller that packs an unexpected emotional punch. The stunning third act is almost totally wordless, telling its story purely in pictures and music. Horror fans will hate it. Sci-fi fans will feel short-changed. Anyone who loves cinema will be mesmerised. None of it makes any sense, but neither did 2001. Just sit back and let the visuals take you on an enthralling journey.
With Solis and now this, writer/director/editor/producer Carl Strathie is a name to watch. If anything is more incredible than that final half-hour, it’s the fact that he made Dark Encounter on a small budget in Yorkshire with a British cast.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Hard to rate... - Dark Encounter review by ER
This is a deeply strange film. Not in a David Lynch kind of way, where events happen like a dream but with a weird logic, or in a traditionally horror movie way, where you can see the scares coming but still relish them.
It's something else entirely. Granted, a big portion of the film is essentially an extended rehash - though an inventive one - of a particular scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; if you're a fan of that, you'll be ticking off your bingo card as the references unfold. But just when you think you know where it's going... you really don't.
Having just watched it I'm not sure the film really earns its elegiac score and grand finale, but at the very least, it's certainly original. The fact that (as other people have pointed out) it concerns an all-American family but was actually shot in Yorkshire featuring an all-English cast only adds to the weirdness. To the filmmakers' benefit, you really wouldn't know that unless you recognise some of the cast.
So yeah, hard to put a rating on it. Better just watch and make your own mind up!
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.