Released in 2019

Dark Encounter

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When 8-year old Maisie goes missing from her home, in a safe country setting, her parents and family around her are shocked and throw everything they’ve got into finding her. However, after a year, the official Police search dies off, grief stricken they hold a memorial service as a way of accepting she’s gone.

 

Later that evening, strange lights, noises and happenings occur in the house, and the woodlands where they live.  Confused, terrified and surprised, the family frantically try to find out what’s happening.

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Right from the off, the characters are finely drawn, and the direction from upcoming talented writer/director, Carl Strathie shines. However, although this seems like it might be a production slick horror paying homage to 1980’s Horror and Scifi films, (which have been a trend recently, as a way of avoiding technology spoiling the delays and bad communication, which often are the enemy of any great plot), it’s plain to see that this is no ordinary genre splice flick.

 

The layers, characters and the mystery keep getting deeper and all the way through the audience is kept guessing, ‘what the heck is it all about?’

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Just as it seems that this is one of those films that is never going to deliver, it does. Wham! Shocking, truly horrifying, this is no ordinary horror film and plays at a far higher level. This is a film that dialogs with expectations, moral stand points, emotional and spiritual states with such skill that you don’t even see it coming. Let’s just put it this way, Carl Strathie has a bright future and after this he may well be able to write his own ticket.

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The effects are seamlessly good, as it the edit and production design. The camera tells the story slickly and there’s none of the usual indulgence of too many meaningless drone shots which actually take the audience out of the film rather than pull it in. This is especially evident in the woodland shots, which are naturalistic and all the more intensely experienced because of it.

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The acting from the ensemble cast is super believable too, which ensures that this is a film destined to become a classic of its genre. 

 

See it! 

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