tiggymalvern | Encounter

Encounter opens with something falling to earth from space. An insect feeds from the forest floor. A praying mantis eats the insect. Then a mosquito flies through a window and feeds on a sleeping human.

Later, Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) wakes his kids in the night and tells them they're taking a surprise road trip; they have to be quick and they have to be quiet.

When the older boy looks in dad's bag, finding weird photos and highlighted documents, Malik explains he's taking them to a special military base, one of the few places still known to be safe. But as the journey goes on, the child starts to grow suspicious of that story. Is Malik a marine who gained access to classified documents about a mind-controlling alien parasite? Or is he a delusional PTSD-sufferer, frantically trying to save his children from a threat that only exists in his own head?

Encounter is a tight psychological drama with a side of US social commentary. Ninety percent of the film is told from Malik's perspective, and Riz Ahmed is of course brilliant in it. Crucially for a film like this, the child actors are up to the job as well.

This film is rated poorly at imdb and rotten tomatoes, which is a real shame, because those people are wrong. I suppose if you sat down to watch a cool alien invasion movie, you'd be disappointed to find yourself watching a small psychological film about a family under stress. I found it well filmed, well paced, with a great performance from Ahmed, and I score it 4/5. Find it on Amazon Prime.