Encounter: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept the Film For What It Is. This movie, which I knew nothing about other than it was sci-fi, was bait-and-switch even with my ignorance. As Bait, it’s really good bait. As Switch, that’s what took me time to accept.

The film sets itself up as a sci-fi horror/thriller about a soldier (played by Riz Ahmed) who is travelling the country, battling some kind of invisible alien insect invasion. This includes some fantastically creepy crawly close-up imagery of insects preying on each other and lurking about us, waiting, perhaps, to strike. Ahmed’s character rescues his children from their mother and takes them on a road trip to Groom Lake. But his story might not hold up, especially when his parole officer (played by Octavia Spencer) enters the picture.

This is basically an unreliable narrator narrative where you have to determine if the main character is off his rocker. When I realized it was that kind of movie, I got worried. And that worry extended beyond the snapping point where it became evident around the middle of the film what the true story was. And it was disappointing since it had done such a good job with its creepy setup. It took me time to adjust to what the movie was instead of what it pretended to be.

And, honestly, what it becomes is pretty good. Riz Ahmed does a fantastic job playing playful papa to keep his kids calm and entertained while telling them stories about an insectoid invasion from space. You can see him doing the mental calculations to keep them safe even as his mental state starts to unravel. It’s a very good performance that saves the film.

The end of the film is, on its own merits and after it sheds its original premise, pretty good. I’ve seen similar chase and stand-off movies that are probably better and certainly ones that don’t pretend to be one thing and become another. But the sci-fi nerd in me is willing to let it go and admit it’s a good flick.

Score: 80