Malik Kahn (Riz Ahmed) returns home from the Marines, questionably discharged with frantic fears of a parasitic alien species which uses humans as their host.  He takes his two young boys, Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada), on the run to safety.  As their mission winds through the night and finds them farther from home, questions about Kahn’s past and his real intentions come to light and put the entire rescue mission of his boys at risk. 

Encounter is, at first glance, a sci-fi thriller for Amazon Prime, but as the narrative begins to reveal itself, it becomes much more of a road trip and action drama than anything else.  Written and directed by Michael Pearce, with assistance on the page by Joe Barton, the genre-swapper has moments of promise but the lack of unity across the narrative makes it a hard film to follow.  The story itself is not that complicated, and the lore is minimal, but the script continually wrestles with itself trying to find its voice. 

Despite those shortcomings in the script, Ahmed delivers a very strong performance here proving his versatility as both an action star and a prestigious actor, too.  There is a scene late in the second act when he is examining himself in a mirror to make sure he is free from parasites when paranoia begins to take over and the panic that overtakes him is one of the finest moments in the entire film.  He brings a grave tone to the subject material and had the script been more fully developed, could have done really great things with the role, but he still manages to be loveable and sells this midnight road trip as something fun for the kids and tries to conceal the true reason for going on the run.   

His chemistry with Chauhan and Geddada is the glue that holds Encounter together.  The early moments when he is reintroducing himself to them, and he is learning about their interests are very charming.  The script provides the three actors with some truly cringe-worthy lines in an attempt at banter, but to its credit, Pearce and Barton use these moments to set up some mechanics for later in the film.  The foresight shown by the screenwriters is appreciated, but it makes the lack of followthrough with some of the ideas presented that much more glaring when the humor is used as a callback instead of the more thematic elements. The boys themselves also have great chemistry together with enough differences to add tension to the scene but the overarching obligation of brotherhood that ensures they both have each other’s back as the narrative begins to turn darker. 

It is in the second half of the 108-minute film that things begin to fall apart as its shifts in tone.  Morphing more into a drama than the sci-fi that it was set up and billed as adds a lot of tension and some more cast members.  Most notably is Hattie Hayes (Octavia Spencer), Malik’s social worker, who helps us navigate the intercut storylines of the second act.  She is in a largely thankless role, here, as little more than an exposition vehicle, but she brings the same warmth and care that we come to expect from the decorated actress.  Her role is also impossible to firmly define her allegiance to other characters, and like Ahmed, she does not receive enough support on the page to really sell Hayes as a real person in the world of the film.  Hayes’ introduction strips away much of the ambiguity which the film set up in the first half and that is detrimental because the handling of the unknown is necessary to make these sort of creature features effective stories.   

Encounter is a rare thing in cinema today: an original work unconnected to any existing IP or historical event, nor was it created to lay the foundation of a larger franchise.  While the film does not necessarily fulfill on its setup, there is a lot to appreciate from the creative team behind the film taking the risks that they did here, and they were able to attract some very respected names to perform in front of the camera.  It is proof that these projects are interesting and have value to the creatives that breathe them into life, the responsibility then falls onto us to show the studios that we as an audience value the rewarding experience of original creativity, too. While Encounter probably will not grace many Top 10 lists, there is still an enjoyable story at play here of a father that will do anything to protect his sons against an enemy unknown.