User Reviews

This movie is a simply a little curiosity for those really into 70s movies (this is me) or Rod Serling. Otherwise it is mostly a waste of time, with stories that have one punch line or interesting moment, with the rest filler (A LOT of filler) to make the movie 90 minutes. The whole thing would have been better as three 10-minute shorts. The only neat part for the 70s film buff is the sort of grainy, dreamy quality of the filming, the hair, cars (especially in the first segment). But even then, this can't hold your interest for long.

****Spoilers Ahead Now***** You know exactly what is going to happen in the first segment, so there is little suspense. The mother reciting the curse is the only cool moment. The hole segment is interesting only in the last 30 seconds when you see the result. A little suspense to see if the boy falls in or goes in. Of the three, this is the best one. The last segment is reasonable, but just too long for anyone to care that much for that much time. Also pretty clear what happens, not much of a "twist."

(Some Spoilers) The movie "Encounters with the Unknown" just can't seem to make up its mind to what it's trying to tell you in the three supernatural stories in it. We get this prologue about this mysterious Rankin Cluster Phenomenon, discovered by a Dr. Jonathan Rankin, that supposed to be as many as 500 graves clustered together in a number of cemeteries all over the country. Were never told what its, the cluster phenomenon, supposed to be or represent! Were then drawn to this funeral for young Jimmy Davis who was killed because of a dirty prank played on him by his three friends Dave Frank & Randy. Jimmy told by the three that they got a hot date set up for him is accidentally shot and killed by elderly Mrs. Wilson who, after mistaking him for a bugler, shot him when her gun went off.

Jimmy's mother Mrs. Davis, the seventh daughter of the seventh son of her father-in-law, put a curse on the three boys telling them that they'll end up like Jimmy did stone cold dead! One by land and two by air, in the span of 21 days after his funeral! Seven days time for each of them to meet their maker, and just as she predicted that's exactly what happens! Dave gets hit and killed by a car Frank dies in a plane crash and Randy perished when his parachute fails to open when he's out skydiving! All the three boys die exactly seven, or 21 in all, days apart from each other!

The next two stories aren't much better, in fact their even worse. Story #2 is about this hole in the woods that supposedly has the Devil living in it. and where little Jesse's dog Lady ends up falling into. Jesse's straight-laced dad Joe not beveling in all that supernatural rubbish that everyone in town is talking about, about the mysterious hole, decide to go it alone and be lowered down into the hole. Joe tries to get the mutt only to end up stark raving mad when he's brought back up, without Lady. He ends up running through the wood like a mindless lunatic; were told by the narrator that Joe completely lost it and ended up in a padded cell in a local mental institution for the rest of his life.

The third and final chapter to "Encounters with the Unknown" has to do with this young girl Susan who's haunting this bridge in rural Arkansas. We find out that she killed herself by driving her jalopy off the bridge and into the river back in 1929. Susan's very strict father forbid her to marry the boy she loved Paul, he wasn't making enough cash, and drove the love sick girl, and possibly her lover Paul, to kill herself. Susan's old man is still alive, this after almost 45 years after the tragic incident, and has to put up with, what can possibly be, hundreds of sighting of his daughter from motorists. Susan gives her dad's address to any motorist who happen to cross the bridge at night when she's there hunting it! This I assume is the old man's punishment from above in trying to interfere with his daughter Susan's love life and it's a purgatory on earth for him.

There's nothing in the film that you haven't seem before with Rod Serling, sounding as serious as ever, pinch-hitting in some of the narration, he replaces the original narrator after the first five minutes of the film. The movie also has a very annoying habit of repeating itself, Mrs. Davis' Heptagran curse is repeated almost a dozen times. There's what looks like an abridged version of the film in the last fifteen minutes. Probably in order to pad the film and make it look like a full-length motion picture.

**Warning Spoilers**

Eric Deighton's review of Encounter with the Unknown *Warning Spoilers*

If you are in the Brian Bly led YT Horror Movie Discussion Group and if you have watched the first three movies selected for discussion in October of 2017, then congratulations; because you have seen a full half of the entire film catalog of actress, Rosie Holotik. Yes, former Playboy Playmate Cover Girl of December 1972, Rosie Holotik, has made exactly four films in her entire career and Brian Bly (by chance?!?!) has chosen two of them, Horror High and Encounter with the Unknown, to review in October 2017.

This was a bad movie. It was grainy and poorly shot. The film was shot silent with the sound, including all voice work, dubbed in post film. For some inexplicable reason they used two separate narrators, Rod Serling and a separate uncredited narrator. The opening crawl was read by a narrator, yet halfway through the voice-over narration he starts reading material that is not written on screen. The plot was weak as it rehashed all to familiar stories.The same footage is shown on screen over and over again in an obvious attempt to increase the total run time.

Brian Bly wonders if this was a Horror film. I consider this a Shockumentary. It is filmed and presented in the same style as the old Leonard Nimoy television series "In Search Of". That television show used to scare the hell out of me as a kid because the occult and supernatural were presented on that show as series and real events that were being studied by "professionals". That is how this movie treats its material. This movie was supposedly a documentary detailing case studies by noted parapsychologist, Dr. Jonathan Rankin who discovered that as many as 500 graves of people involved in the supernatural are clustered in 23 graveyards (the "Rankin Cluster Phenomenon"). Except there never was a Dr. Jonathan Rankin and the "Rankin Cluster Phenomenon" was invented out of whole cloth for this movie.

Interesting facts about the movie:

*The whole movie was a low budget and locally filmed product of Arkansas and is featured in the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas. *A local Arkansas man who claims that as a boy he did the post film voice over for the little boy in the "Hole" story also claims that the sound effect of the noises from inside the Hole were created by having him call the dog's name "Lady" from deep down in the bottom of a concrete cistern.

* The director Harry Thomason is a famous figure in Arkansas history as he went on to produce a number of hit Television series in the 1980's including the "Fall Guy", "Designing Woman" and "Evening Shade" but was also the Co-Chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1992 Election Convention and Inauguration Committee. Later Harry Thomason got caught up in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and testified before the Lewinsky Grand Jury.

*The majority of the soundtrack for this movie (not the folk song but the instrumental interludes) were composed and performed by Johnny Pearson. I bet you don't know his name but I am sure you all heard his most famous work; the classic Monday Night Football instrumental (a link is provided below).

Out of all the horror anthology movies that came out in the 1970s, "Encounter with the Unknown" is among the most obscure, though it's out on DVD for anyone who is really curious. Actually, I can't imagine any potential viewer finding enjoyment with this extremely weak movie. It goes wrong in almost every way you can think of. It's very very very cheap; it seems that most of the budget was blown with hiring Rod Serling to narrate, and to drive an antique car into a river. Threadbare production values from obvious dubbing to airplane crashes happening out of camera range abound. The movie is also ridiculously padded. Certainly the three stories are all extended past the breaking point, but the movie has the gall to tack on a 15 minute epilogue consisting of flashbacks to footage we've already seen while inane narration is being spoken. But the worst thing about the movie is that it has no kick to it. There are no twists or surprises, with the movie curiously content to let viewers know what will happen long before it actually happens. In the end, the only viewers who might be surprised by anything in the movie would be very little kids who haven't seen a horror anthology before... but it's more likely they'll just be as bored as their parents.

The three episodes are set each in a different era of the 20th century, and they are basically scary, hypothetically based on folklore and superstition. The thing is meant to resemble journalism, done with irony; none of the episodes is too good, or at least averagely well made, except that each has a nice actress. The movie has a folksy sense of humor, either about reasonable priests or backwoods life and after the relentless bleakness of the 1st episode the movie slows down and even offers an idyll, and the 3rd episode is worth thinking about, as it might have been the most intriguing, as a matter of fact it's an eerie idyll. One acknowledges the beauty of the women in this movie: Fran Franklin as the witch, Annabelle Weenick as the wife, Rosie Holotik as the girl, Judith Fields as the driver's wife.

I remember seeing this film as a kid and it freaked me out. I always thought it was well done, and when I rented it years later on VHS I found it to be still entertaining. Having Rod Serling narrate it added a level of spookiness, and the documentary-style mixed with reenactments worked well for it. This flick reminds me of that creepy 70's show In Search Of. I enjoyed all three stories equally. I liked how all 3 stories are based on actual events. I also found it creepy how in the beginning the narration talked about a theory that many people who's deaths are related to the supernatural or the occult tend to be buried in the same cemetery. I wish they would finally release this on DVD. I've been waiting for years to own this!

Rod Serling made a living late in his life narrating various specials, and this film, which isn't that famous, but for those of us who saw it on television, it was one to remember.

Starts off atmospherically in a cemetery, where the following three tales of supernatural encounters are supposed to have been recorded by a paranormal researcher, but I have never seen this person verified!(Was he made up for dramatic reasons?) First story involves a mother's death curse against the three teenagers whose cruel prank led to her son's death; eerie, but becomes repetitive, with too many flashbacks and close ups of the mother.

The second story is the best, about a mysterious smoking hole that appears in the ground somewhere in the south, where frightening sounds can be heard emanating from that a local boy and his dog discover, leading to his father, then the whole town investigating. Really creepy and effective, with a memorable payoff. Not easily forgotten.

Third story is the old chestnut of the vanishing hitchhiker, this time a lovely young woman trying to get home, and the Senator who gives her a lift from a bridge. Nothing new, but effectively creates a melancholy air about lost love and wasted life that will stay with you.

The entire film is atmospheric, with a notable early 1970's aura about it, and makes fine use of its real-life cemetery location. On Blu-ray, and worth tracking down.

Three tales of terror of the urban legend variety: A trio of college frat boys are cursed by the bitter and vengeful mother (a nicely sinister portrayal by Fran Franklin) of a boy who they accidentally killed with an ill-advised prank; a little boy discovers a mysterious hole in the woods that might just be a pit leading straight to hell; and a motorist gives a ride to forlorn hitchhiker Susan (beautifully played with touching grace by ravishing redhead Rosie Holotik of "Horror High" fame), who turns out to be a ghost. Director/co-writer Harry Thomason relates the entertaining stories at a steady pace and does a solid job of creating a pleasingly spooky atmosphere, with the middle segment in particular standing out as one remarkably creepy affair (the ghastly screams and moans coming up from out of the hole are genuinely scary and unnerving). The earnest acting from a cast of familiar Southern-fried hillbilly exploitation cinema faces helps a lot, with especially praiseworthy work from Gene Ross as Susan's stern disapproving father, Annabelle Weenick as a distraught farm woman, Robert Holton as concerned redneck Joe, Robert Ginnaven as compassionate priest Father Duane, Charlie Dell as pesky village idiot Jonas, and the always welcome Bill Thurman as an amiable local yokel. Rod Serling's exquisitely sonorous narration provides a lovely element of pure class. The backwoods locations give the picture a folksy downhome charm. The fairly polished cinematography by James W. Roberson and Charles Thurston boasts a few snazzy visual flourishes. The spirited shivery score hits the shuddery spot. A really fun fright flick.

Highly entertaining! Emotionally charged! Riveting! This is a great campy attempt at Twillight Zone. One interesting twist in one of the stories is you will actually see a flashback within a flashback! You don't see that a lot! Kudo's to the filmmaker! To top it off it stars Robert Ginnaven, from Day it Came to Earth and he's teamed up with his partner from that movie, Lyle Armstrong. My friend and I find constant entertainment outta this one. Best skit in this movie is the first story involving three twitty looking dudes being told of a curse in which they all might die! I would suggest viewing this and then The Day It Came to Earth right after.

Rod Serling's name attached to this project is what brought me to it. Any of the three stories presented would have been good material for an episode of "The Twilight Zone", though it seems unusual that they're completely unrelated to each other. For 1972, the production values of this film look exceedingly low budget with a washed out and dreary look. For that reason, it's a bit of a chore to sit through them, even if they do offer a tantalizing bit of mystery and horror. Of the trio, I found the third story of the 'Girl on the Bridge' to be the most fascinating, IF in fact it was based on an actual event the way all three were purported to be. It explores the 'possibility of the impossible' as the introduction to the story suggests. I won't belabor the reader with an analysis of each one as others on this board have already done so. I do think the picture wore out it's welcome after the final chapter with it's needless rehashing of events with an attempted explanation. Better to leave it all up to the imagination of the viewer.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE UNKNOWN is a little known US horror anthology with narration by Rod Serling. There are three tales collected here, with the hook that they're all supposedly true. The film's quality is low budget, with lots of grain throughout and unknown actors across the board, but the scripting is fairly decent. The main thing that lets this down is the last fifteen minutes which merely recaps all of the stories we've just watched and seems to have been tacked on to pad out the running time. The first tale is about a prank by a group of college students that ends in unexpected murder. The second, and my favourite, is about a hole that opens up in a park and which may be responsible for the death of a kid's dog. The third story is about a teenage girl's love affair that ends in tragedy.