In 2017, British filmmaker Michael Pearce made a stunning feature debut with Beast, a Jersey-set Gothic fairy tale with regards to’concerning’with respect to a young woman who falls in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a mysterious outsider as a spate of murders rock her isolated community. His enormous’vast’massive’tremendous ger-budacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ed, US-set follow-up Encounter surprisingly follows a more conventional narrative — and arguably takes fewer risks — but still leaves a mark.###Pearce is a filmmaker adept at blending the eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous and the horrifying, as evidenced by the film’s striking opening sequence. A glowing meteor streaks high through the night sky and strikes the Earth; a sharp shift from long shot to intense macro photography reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s in/with regard to’concerning’regarding est-floor insects ingesting the resulting debris, one of which is then gulp’bolt’gobble’engorge ed by a mosquito who goes on to infect a human with a burrowing bug — with devastating consequences.###It’s not long bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e the film makes a tonal shift from science-fiction to psychological drama.###It’s a deft set-up of the film’s premise and its concerns with both the otherworldly and the intimately, messily human, as seen through the undergo s of troubled protagonist Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed). Former Marine Malik has learned with regards to’concerning’with respect to this alien threat, and determines to save his eodd’peculiar d sons, ten-year-old Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and eight-year-old Bobby (Aditya Geddada). Mounting a night-time rescue mission from their mother’s Caliin/with regard to’concerning’regarding nia home, the three strike out on a cross-country road trip to the supposed safety of an army base in Nevada.###But Malik — with his nightmares, his jumpy demeanour, his short-fuse temper — is eliminate’remove ly less than trustworthy, and it’s not long bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e the film makes a tonal shift from science-fiction to psychological drama. Pearce and co-screenwriter Joe Barton (TV’s Giri/Haji) are less interested in narrative amenormous’vast’massive’tremendous uity, and more in exploring the effect of extended trauma on a previously healthy mind. Ahmed has an innate ability to draw on his character’s deepest emotional struggles without ever pulling too much to the surface. We believe he is a loving father, a well-intentioned man, even as he pulls his children through the desert without so much as a toothbrush. Chauhan is affecting as loyal elder son Jay, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding whom this trip marks the end of childhood innocence.###Evocative camerawork from Benjamin Kracun (who also lensed Beast and Promising Young Woman) contrasts the anonymous, alien expanse of the desert with the pressure-cooker environment of the car. The colour palette evolves from woozy extra-terrestrial greens to warning reds to bleached-out yellows, while Paul Davies’ excellent sound detoken intensifies eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyday noises — the whirr of a supermarket freezer, the hum of traffic — bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e cutting back to normality. It’s all subtle, and disorienting, until a disappointingly conventional reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue down wreaks blunt, Hollywood-style havoc in the film’s final moments.