Encounter (V) (2016) User Reviews

Encounter

[jpq-89332 · 4/10 · 21 August 2016]

I have actually never rated a horror movie lower than 5 on here due to the infallible rating system that IMDb relies on. However, in this case I could not actually sit still to watch this movie.

As an avid lover of horror movies, I believe that the "Hollywood" part of the genre has taken what the indie type films have managed to salvage. Rarely, has Hollywood taken a premise and made it better; unfortunately, for this film this is one of those rare occasions.

Encounter starts off with the usual trope of newlywed couple, dedicated spouse (usually groom) to filming or capturing some paranormal activity, a dedicated, but skeptical spouse and some sort of paranormal entity. As the movie progresses, it's likening to Paranormal Activity becomes very obvious (even with the found footage type of film).

What makes the film unwatchable, to me, is the lack of depth in character development. The landlord is creepy and weird enough and while he has some spotlight, not enough information went into his development. The couple becomes annoying after the first half and the plot takes waaaaaaaaaaay too long to progress. The movie is less than 90 minutes, but it could be completed in 50 and would've been a far better project.

Recommendation: watch on Netflix or some other movie website but don't pay for this. Prepare your patience in advance and don't get your hopes up. Good Luck!

Do NOT Encounter this movie!!!!

[toyman1967 · 1/10 · 22 February 2017]

What a HUGE waste of time this was!!! First off, I HATE found footage movies and when I found out that this was one, I should have NOT watched it. It is slow, boring and NOTHING happens!!! Then just when I thought it was about supernatural happenings, it turns into an alien flick. This is by far the WORST movie I have EVER watched and I have watched A lot of BAD movies. I kept falling asleep and having to rewind to see if I missed anything...............I didn't and you wont either if you skip this ROTTEN movie!!!

Big waste of time

[pete-rees76 · 1/10 · 24 November 2020]

Huge fan of films had trouble watching this to the end , I watch everything to the end but this film just proves how bad some of the things on prime are , feel like I've wasted over an hour of my life

Let down by a poor, unfocused script.

[scartissuefilms-75938 · 2/10 · 6 May 2020]

This film isn't wholly without merit, but it's among the lesser lights you'll find on streaming sites.

The performances were mostly good and the production is fine, it's just that the story is quite illogical and the ending is almost absurdly anti-climatic.

I'd only recommend it if you've somehow managed to watch every other horror film in existence.

I GOT NO WHERE TO HIDE

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 22 April 2018]

Quick plot spoiler review.

Found Footage. San Luis Obispo farm house. Study Orbs. Suicide. Seance. Aliens. Crop circles. Don Scribner- good. Justin Arnold- bad. Andrea Nelson- eye candy. . Don't bother.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity on their honeymoon.

Erm...don't waste life on this

[thecla555 · 2/10 · 20 January 2021]

It started as an ok B movie, not the best acting but not the worst, so I persevered, silly silly girl.

The main issues are that the writer couldn't decide between aliens or ghosts, and the she clearly thinks she's duped us into thinking it's one and then it turning out to be the other...shocker it's aliens...except there is no shock, at all, ever. It uses all the old tropes, some banal reason for having cameras in rooms, swinging lightshades, scratches on the walls, odd marks on their bodies, some old guy who for some reason creeps out the woman, the couple have no money to move elsewhere. About half way through, I wondered what to have for tea tomorrow and what I should get my brother for his birthday...so not a gripping film. It actually annoys me when people make these films, I know, get a life right? At least they've bothered to make a film etc. Yes ok, fair enough, however what I truly want to know, is who read this and said, yep that's a great idea, this makes perfect sense and is going to be a great movie for all to enjoy, here's some money, someone grab a camera and meet me at the farm? Cos whoever they are, I have some great ideas for horror films, so feel free to reach out, unless it was fully funded by the writer, then...erm I'm good, thanks.

Excellent low budget horror film

[fstapleton-75543 · 7/10 · 19 May 2020]

Thought this got nearly everything right except maybe the ending. Doesn't play like found footage as the couple set up cameras around the remote farm to observe Orbs. Although this work doesn't really feature much in the film. No shaky camera work then thankfully. So its well acted with an engaging couple. Script and direction are good. Creepy, unsettling atmosphere and a well developed story with some good scares/tense moments. I really don't know what people giving this 1/2 stars want in a low budget horror. Thought the ending could have been handled better as well as one other key moment but overall this deserves far more attention.

Not going to spoil it

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 6/10 · 11 April 2020]

Starts as a hunt for supernatural element film, and then the creepiness factor slowly develops. As things progress, you think you know what is happening. Then you realize something else entirely is happening. Low production values but somehow this doesn't detract from the solid acting. Upped my rating to a 6 as I wrote this review.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 7/10 · 20 June 2016]

Possibly the least welcoming landlord ever, Jim (Don Scribner), shows a likable newlywed couple Lauren (Andrea Nelson) and Ted (Justin Arnold), around his spacious house. They are renting a room from him, he tells them they look like good kids and that his family is dead. To him. In the way of such things, the couple are not tempted to take back their deposit and find somewhere - anywhere - else, and Ted's studies into 'orbs' necessitate he decks the area out with cameras, Paranormal Activity-style.

When the inevitable strange sounds keep the couple awake at night, Ted has a word with Jim, who is sitting in silence in the kitchen, cleaning a shotgun. Still the newlyweds are disinclined to leave, even after Jim's later suicide attempt.

The acting here is exemplary. Nelson (who bears a marked resemblance to Elsa Lanchester in certain scenes) and Arnold display a believable chemistry, with Ted's usually placid personality stretched to the limit. Lauren is more pragmatic. She suggests a séance, which appears merely to exacerbate the hauntings.

Only when both of them have been marked with the same sign that afflicted the departed Jim does Ted look up the residence on the internet to find strange things have long since been happening – cattle stripped of their reproductive organs, tongues etc. We then appear to come full circle, with Lauren waking up in darkness, in a field, in a scene which opened the film (the rest happening in flashback). A weird dislocated scene in which shadowed aliens appear to be delivering Lauren's child aside, there are no special effects here.

Illogical events like their decision not to leave, and the impossibility of some climactic scenes being filmed (when until that point, the film is very much of the found-footage school) never fail to rankle, yet much else about 'Encounter' is extremely good – the claustrophobic setting, the performances, the gentle ramping up of strange happenings. The ending, which is open-ended in the extreme, is either exasperating, or highly powerful, depending on your point of view. In a reversal of 'The Blair Witch Project (1999)', interviews with residents, shedding possible light on events, appear at the close, rather than at the beginning, providing a retrospective assessment of Lovecraftian possibilities. Very enjoyable.