Dark Encounter 2019

In November 1982, Ray and Olivia return to their small-town home to find that their eight-year-old daughter, Maisie, has disappeared without a trace.

One year later, after a memorial service, the family gathers for dinner with a wider circle: Ray’s brother Billy, Olivia’s sister Arlene and her husband Kenneth, the local sheriff Sheriff Reese Jordan, and Olivia’s widowed brother Morgan. The mood is uneasy, and the meal becomes tense when Ray launches into an argument with Billy. Later, Ray and Morgan share a quiet, bruised conversation about grief; Morgan offers his advice, but Ray makes it clear he isn’t ready to move on and storms out of the kitchen.

Earlier in the evening, a strange play of light begins in the forest, drawing Ray’s suspicion toward local children with flares. He leads a small party—[Morgan], [Billy], [the sheriff], and Noah—into the trees and witnesses a cascade of eerie phenomena: the batteries and flashlights flicker, an otherworldly light crosses the wood, and Morgan vanishes without a trace. The sheriff experiences a shock that leaves him catatonic, and when they return to the car, the sense of foreboding grows. Olivia and Arlene, left behind at the house, are rattled by rumbling noises that echo through the walls.

Back at the house, the disturbances escalate. Lights flicker wildly, devices activate on their own, metal objects clatter and attract, and a scarcely visible presence moves around the home. In a terrifying sequence, Ray, [Kenneth], and Arlene disappear one by one, drawn away by an unseen force. [Billy], Olivia, and [Noah] flee to the nearest country road, where they witness another spectacular sky display before being picked up by the local sheriff and a second officer and driven back to the house. The trio keeps what happened a secret, reporting only that they were tormented by an unknown trio. They barricade themselves in Maisie’s bedroom while the rest of the town’s authorities set out to investigate.

A police station crowd begins to assemble, and a policewoman describes similar sightings to the sheriff, hinting that these events are part of a wider pattern.

Inside the house, an alien intrudes into the bedroom and touches Olivia’s forehead. She is pulled into a vision in which she stands in a replica of her home and watches the events that led to Maisie’s disappearance unfold. While Ray and Olivia were away, [the sheriff] [Sheriff Reese Jordan] visited Maisie and, taking advantage of her parents’ absence, harmed her and killed her, burying Maisie’s body in the forest where the lights began a year later. As the truth comes to light, the walls of the house begin to crack.

Olivia awakens in Maisie’s bed, and her son calls to her from across the room; they share a heartfelt embrace. The others who had vanished slowly reappear, shaken and bleeding from the nose, as the full truth sinks in. The revelation leaves them stunned, and they confront [Kenneth], as [Arlene] strikes him in anger. The sheriff arrives, and a search party is organized that ultimately locates Maisie’s body, triggering a second funeral. The sheriff is later interviewed on television, reflecting on the extraordinary events and the alien presence that helped find Maisie. The final image follows Ray and Olivia in bed, beginning to process what they have endured and to seek a measure of inner peace.