Review: 'Encounter,' led by a ferocious Riz Ahmed, is a psychological thriller that leaves the audience off balance

A wolf in an alien’s clothing, director Michael Pearce’s “Encounter” is a dark and intense psychological drama that follow the desperate actions of a tortured soul.

Pearce — who made the dark romance “Beast” with Jessie Buckley in 2017 — starts by showing us what appears to be an alien invasion at the microbial level. A meteor has somehow infected microscopic creatures with an alien parasite that is taking over human bodies.

The one person who seems to know this is happening is Malik Khan (played by Riz Ahmed), a former Marine who’s been off the grid for awhile. One night, Malik goes to the home of his ex-wife, Piya (Janina Gavankar), and her new husband, Dylan (Misha Collins), to pick up his sons, 10-year-old Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and 8-year-old Bobby (Aditya Geddada), for what he tells them will be a great camping adventure.

What soon becomes clear, to Jay and to us, is that there’s much doubt about whether this parasite invasion is real — or whether Malik is losing his mind. Certainly that’s the fear of Malik’s parole officer, Hattie (Octavia Spencer), and of the FBI agent (Rory Cochrane) who is investigating the boys’ departure as a kidnapping.

Part of the tension that Pearce and co-screenwriter Joe Barton build here is in leaving that central question — is Malik saving his kids or putting them in more danger? — up in the air for as long as possible. If Malik is going mad, the world seems to be going with him, particularly in a nasty encounter with some white-supremacist vigilantes.

Not all of the story works, and the inevitability of a “Thelma & Louise”-style ending grows with every minute. But Ahmed, coming off his Oscar-nominated turn in “Sound of Metal,” gives a ferocious performance here, burrowing deep into Malik’s troubled psyche as he wrestles with figuring out the best way to keep his sons safe. It’s a performance that makes “Encounter” irresistibly watchable, even as the plot churns toward the predictable.

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‘Encounter’

★★★

Opens Friday, December 3, in select theaters. Rated R for lanaguage and some violence. Running time: 108 minutes.