Dark Encounter

I have always been fascinated by space and the unkown planets we have out there. Are there other life forms out there, or are we alone in the universe ? I personally believe that there might be life on another planet. Perhaps not aliens that we see in films and TV series, but maybe there is life on a microbiology level. I could be wrong, maybe there are alien species out there, but we need proof of this first before we can confirm this is true. Maybe we will find out as we explore new planets in the future. When it comes to sci fi films that brings up aliens, there are so many great titles to choose between. It all depends on what you are looking for, in the sci fi genre. But everytime i think about aliens in films, i always look back at one of my personal favourite films in this genre, the sci fi drama Fire In The Sky, released in 1993. I have brought up this film in the past in some of my reviews, but this is one of those films people don´t really talk about much anymore, so let´s go through the plot once more. This film is based on the story by the abduction story of Travis Walton, that he released in his novel The Walton Experience. Even if the book and the film have some changes done, the film takes place in 1975, in Snowflake, Arizona. When a gang of loggers head back home after a hard days work in the forest, Travis Walton ( D.B. Sweeney ) notice with his co-workers a strange shining light in the forest from the highway. They drive towards the light, where Travis goes out to check the sky. There he sees some kind of UFO, shining a beam of light on him. The other men drive off, trying to tell people what happened. Travis is not found anywhere in the forest, and the days go by, until one night when Travis calls from a phone booth. He is found naked, and completely terrified. What happened to Travis, and where was he for so many days ? Director Robert Lieberman managed to combine a very serious drama story, with science fiction in a very emotional way. Fire In The Sky is a must have in your DVD collection. As i went through recently bought DVD´s from the UK, i decided to check out a film called Dark Encounter that looked really interesting. Is this a surprisingly good sci fi film, or is Dark Encounter a film that no one will remember at all ?

In 1982, parents Olivia ( Laura Fraser ) and Ray ( Mel Raido ) go out for a night out, while their young daughter Maisie stay home alone. As they return, Maisie is gone and nowhere to be seen. A year goes by and no one still knows nothing of where their daughter Maisie is. But the family is about to find out the truth, and no one is really prepared to what is about to be revealed.

If you love the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and the cult classic Fire In The Sky, then you are going to love Dark Encounter. This is not the ordinary alien abduction film, but much deeper than you might expect. You see, towards the last 25 minutes of the film, you get a complete different twist into the story. And this is especially what makes Dark Encounter so good, since you did not expect this film to end the way it did. And i love when a director dares to go in a completely different direction, instead of following the same predictable plot that a lot of sci fi film does. Even if the film starts off in a similar way to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, i still feel that this film manage to do it in a very professional way thanks to strong acting performances. Let´s get into the characters for a bit. Ray, played by British actor Mel Raido ( who i especially remember from the British crime drama Clubbed ) does a really good performance, as the father to his missing daughter Maisie. Mel really digs deep into his character, and how it feels not knowing where your child is. Breaking Bad actress Laura Fraser also give a strong performance as Maisies mother Olivia. You can tell she is also suffering, when no one seems to know where Maisie is. There are other great performances in this as well, but we need to talk about the cinematography by Bart Sienkiewicz. He has done a wonderful job on this film, and manage to capture the right tone for this genre. Director Carl Strathie have made one of the best independent sci fi films in recent years with Dark Encounter. Not only does he manage to capture the tone of some of the best alien abduction classics, he also adds something completely different to the plot in a very emotional way. I am curious to know if director Carl Strathie also loves Fire In The Sky, i got a sense he might have been inspired by that film while making Dark Encounter ( i could be wrong, i hope not ). I suggest you pick up Dark Encounter on DVD or Blu Ray this weekend, and experience a real quality film with more depth than you can imagine.

Rating: DDDD