Martin's foot becomes infected from his injury and Zach sloppily amputates some of his toes with a hatchet.Īlma acquires a discarded blade to free herself and Martin before attacking Zach. Upon waking up Zach describes the symbol as a mark to be seen by a presence in the woods, claimed by him to have once been an ancient sorcerer who placed his essence in a standing stone somewhere in the forest. While they are unconscious, Zach takes ritualistic photos of them in strange clothes and positions and stitches a strange symbol and animal gut into Martin's arm. Martin and Alma begin to lose consciousness and realize they have been sedated. Taking them to his own campsite, Zach disinfects and stitches Martin's wound and gives them both food and a drink. They are approached by Zach, a man living in the woods who offers to lend the pair some shoes. Without his shoes, Martin badly cuts his foot. The next night, Martin discovers a rash on his arm before he and Alma are assaulted by unknown assailants who also raid their camp, destroy their equipment, steal their shoes, and loot some of their supplies. The following morning, Martin and Alma begin their two-day hike toward Olivia's site.Īlma informs Martin that Olivia has not been heard from in months. After passing a physical examination and meeting his park guide Alma, he learns of the local legend of Parnag Fegg, a woodland spirit. For all her talk about being a good judge of character who is potentially capable of diffusing a volatile situation, Hattie basically does nothing the entire film besides provide exposition that’s already fairly obvious.Martin Lowery is a scientist sent to a government-controlled outpost located in an unusually fertile forested area outside of Bristol to help in the studies and experiments of his former colleague and ex-lover Olivia Wendle regarding using mycorrhiza to increase crop efficiency. There’s really nothing gained from looking behind the scenes at the hunt for Malik led by overly aggressive FBI agents or a largely wasted performance by Octavia Spencer as Hattie, a kindly parole officer trying to protect him. The film would arguably be much better if it entirely focused on the perspectives of these characters, leaving the other forces moving around them unexplained and up to us to imagine until they are directly confronting the protagonists.
However, the maturity and togetherness of each character feels driven by the necessities of the plot, making the shifts feel too convenient and abrupt. Chauhan and Geddada do a remarkable job themselves, with Geddada embodying the equally erratic nature of a young child while Chauhan tries hard to meet the wild expectations of the father he idolizes. The discordant music and abrupt shifts in volume or tone help add to the uneaseĪhmed does an excellent job with a tough role, an erratic force who alternates between joking with Jay about the muscles he grew in the two years when Malik was on a “secret mission” to yelling that it’s time for the 10-year-old to grow up and take care of his little brother. By showing places where it looks like civilization has already collapsed or never even existed, it’s easy to feel unsure of the state of the world. Yet the locations at which Encounter is filmed are spectacular, from California roads cutting through seemingly endless desert to an abandoned mining town where Malik’s kids play in half-built ruins. The constant ominous focus on insects persists through the first act, after which the film abandons its central mystery and instead slides into tired tropes and extremely blunt messaging about the treatment of veterans and violence against people of color. Michael Pearce’s direction is far more impressive than his script, which is co-written with Joe Barton.