I can’t believe that I am saying this but I think I like Amazon Prime’s streaming service better than the others because they have the rarer gems.
There are also flicks that are just plain nostalgic.
Now what I am here to talk about tonight is a rare gem from 1972 titled Encounter with the Unknown.
I am not going to go into too much detail about my personal history of this flick but I will say that it creeped the hell out of me when I was a kid.
First off what sold me on the film was on the cover was none other than Mr. Rod Serling himself credited as the narrator and I immediately thought Twilight Zone…though the film is far more Night Gallery.Actually to be honest to you other than the voice over work Serling had really nothing more to do with this flick. As a matter of fact he isn’t even the only narrator in the movie, More on that later.
This flick helmed by Harry Thomason is an Anthology film that details some of the stories in a cemetery in an unknown location and while the film takes a scientific approach as we are informed of the studies of Parapsychologist Dr. Jonathan Rankin revealing that he has linked various paranormal phenomena and certain cemeteries across the country and these tales are all contained in this particular graveyard.
This is when Serling takes over the narration in his own twilight zone fashion.
The first tale is of a seemingly innocent prank that ended in tragedy with the unintended death of the victim and the mother cursing the three that she sees as responsible, telling them of the heptagon and “seven times around go the three of you and may your award be just and true”.
What follows is a airplane confession to a traveling priest from one of the three telling of the tragedy and the death of one of them seven days later.
Now this tale is creepy and when I first saw the flick and the constant imagery of The Mother’s curse and her face particularly the eyes…It added some further atmosphere to the story.
The next tale follows a boy searching for his lost dog and while searching finds a hole in the ground with an unearthly growling coming from inside. Needless to say the father and some of the local men including The Sheriff investigate with disastrous results and proving the theory that sometimes you don’t have to see to be scared.
Our third tale is a retelling of “The Girl on the Bridge” aka “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” with Playboy Playmate Rosie Holotic in the title role. Holotic was known for other genre works including Don’t Look in the Basement.
This interpretation of the famous ghost story spends a great amount of time with our Hitchhiker showing her story of love, loss, and the ultimate tragedy and fate of all involved that ultimately makes the tale hard to watch due to the fact that we know early on the outcome of the story.
Now this is where I talk about the end of the film where another narrator takes over for Serling and examines all three stories and their meanings and tries to explain the logical and supernatural explanations. This narrator is implied to be Dr. Rankin who was established earlier to be deceased himself and remains uncredited.
Now I will come forward to state that I do believe this unknown and uncredited Voice to be None other than Dana Andrews.
Now many have complained of the use of repeats in the film as many believe that it was used to expand the films running time and added much redundancy to the film. Now I state that that did not bother me as much because in many ways it added to the creepiness and tragedy to many of the stories. Also bear in mind that this was an often used narrative during this film’s production era and adds to the nostalgia.
Now the film’s use of many often seen character actors as well as it’s production technique does give the flick it’s regional feel as one of the Southern Exploitation of the time.
Nice pick in the cemetery for the location.
This is also a flick that you can watch during he day and still be creeped out.
I agree with some sites that this flick should be screened with Legend of Boggy Creek and Town that Dreaded Sundown or with some episodes of Night Gallery or In Search Of.
