Sometimes subverting expectations can be a good thing. Ya know … if done right. Over the years there have been a number of “alien encounter” movies that try to spring life in this underused sci-fi subgenre. We’ll get the occasional icons like ‘E.T’ or the awesome original ‘V’ series. Then we’ll get things like ‘Signs’ that try to be clever but fall apart upon closer examination. For a while now, there hasn’t been much in this subgenre that made me go “oooooooh” in a good way. That was until ‘Dark Encounter’ hit my desk.
‘Break Bad’ actress and Glasglow native Laura Fraser strapped on her perfect North American accent again as she enveloped herself in the role of Olivia, the mother of a missing child. The vanishing of her daughter Maisie may seem like an average, if not tragic, event. On the one-year anniversary of the disappearance, however, strange things begin to happen. Lights appear in the sky and forest. More people vanish into thin air right in front of loved ones. Is the family’s personal tragedy connected to the odd events?
I recently spoke to Laura Fraser over the phone about this film. We kept everything spoiler-free, so don’t worry about listening in before seeing the film. When I asked which scene Laura enjoyed filming the most, it was surprisingly one where she wasn’t the most prevalent entity on screen:
“I loved the stuff when we got to watch the drones. They used huge drones [for the lights in the sky]. I’d never seen drones so big. It was like watching a movie while you were shooting it. You know? It wasn’t CGI. It was just there. It was so cool.”
‘Dark Encounter’ will be available on-demand via iTunes come January 7th, 2020. Physical copies of the film can be purchased at WalMart.com and Amazon.
