Dark Encounter (2 Stars)

This is the 27th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

"Dark Encounter" is a film that some people will love and others will hate. It all depends on what you expect from a film. The atmosphere, the acting and the musical score are all first rate. If that's what you want, you'll love it. But the story is so unintelligible that I sat in the cinema not knowing what was happening in front of me.

In 1982 a young girl disappears from her home while her parents are out shopping. There are strange lights in the sky, so some people suspect an alien abduction. 12 months later the family is sitting together to remember the girl, and the aliens return.

If it had just been a story about an alien abduction, I would have been happy. But twist after twist comes, and the whole story becomes too complicated to follow. The house itself flies through space, out of the solar system, out of the galaxy, to the outer edge of the universe. Time travel is involved, so the family can meet their former selves.

I expect a film to have a coherent plot. That doesn't mean I have to understand everything. Nobody fully understands "Lost Highway", but it's obvious that there's a logic to it. "Dark Encounter" is just confused.