Film
Communion
Communion follows a man trying to convince loved ones that something genuinely unknowable happened to him in a cabin—whether alien contact or psychological break remains deliberately unresolved. It's unsettling and intimate, built on Christopher Walken's fractured performance and marital strain. For anyone fascinated by ambiguous horror and the terror of not being believed.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like unsettling films that trust ambiguity and a single actor's unnerving stillness, where the dread lives in doubt about what is real rather than in monsters.
Skip it if you need clear answers or brisk plotting, since it lingers on hushed, repetitive domestic scenes and leaves much unexplained, which can feel frustrating.
What it asks of you: Long stretches of hushed, unsettled quiet and a tolerance for not knowing; at 103 minutes it is compact, but it moves at a deliberate, unhurried pace.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Close Encounters of the Third Kind1977
Spielberg's optimistic vision of first contact: wonder, mystery, scientific rapture. The visual language of alien presence feels tactile and real in ways most sci-fi doesn't.
But Nearly three hours, and the middle sags with government bureaucracy. Some find the cosmic wonder stuff remote compared to human stakes.

Rosemary's Baby1968
Polanski's masterpiece about a woman convinced something is terribly wrong while everyone around her dismisses her. Paranoia as lived experience, not plot mechanics.
But The slow burn takes patience. And the ending arrives in a register that will divide you on first watch.

The Invisible Man2020
A woman terrorized by someone she can't see, doubted by everyone. Builds an almost unbearable tension from gaslighting and the violation of feeling unsafe in your own space.
But Less interested in the sci-fi premise than in abuse dynamics. Some want more spectacle, less trauma.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Communion
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The OA2016
Like Communion, it's about a person claiming an encounter too strange to explain, credibility collapsing around them, and whether love can survive radical doubt. Both treat the unknowable as sacred rather than threatening.
A blind woman returns sighted with impossible knowledge and fragmented memories of other dimensions. Occult, generous, visually strange—it takes the idea of ineffable experience seriously.
But Cancelled after two seasons. The mythology gets increasingly baroque and demands trust the show hadn't yet earned. Some see it as pretentious.

More like this (8)
Take Shelter2011
Michael Shannon as a man haunted by apocalyptic visions, building a doomsday bunker while his wife watches him unravel. Intimate, dread-soaked, honest about mental fragility.
But Oppressively bleak. No reassurance the visions mean anything. The ambiguity never lifts.

The Fourth Kind2009
A psychologist encounters patients with identical, terrifying memories of alien abduction. Found-footage elements and hypnosis sessions create genuine unease.
But Heavy-handed at times and leans into jump scares. The conceit wears thin by the midpoint.

Fire in the Sky1993
The 1975 Travis Walton abduction case. A small-town narrative with an unforgettable final act sequence that commits fully to the strangeness.
But The early scenes are standard thriller territory. And the abduction sequence is body-horror intense in ways that can feel exploitative.

Altered States1980
A scientist uses sensory deprivation and drugs to reach altered consciousness. Visually hallucinatory, philosophically ambitious, genuinely trippy.
But The script gets tangled in its own ideas. By the third act it lurches into territory that doesn't quite land.

Dark Skies2013
A suburban family terrorized by something otherworldly. Smart about how science fiction dread can live in the everyday.
But Competent but generic. Doesn't do anything the abduction-horror formula hasn't already done better.

Nightmares1983
Four separate horror stories including one about a man convinced aliens are hunting him. Uneven, but the alien segment nails paranoid body-snatcher terror.
But An anthology means no sustained narrative. Three of the four segments vary wildly in quality.

A Separation2011
Both films understand that the worst horror isn't monsters but the slow dissolution of trust between people who love each other. The alien (or the accusation of strangeness) just accelerates what's already breaking.
An Iranian couple's divorce becomes a moral maze where no one is right and everything is witnessed. Builds unbearable tension from ordinary conversation.
But Subtitled. Slow-paced. The emotional weight is grueling; this is not comfort viewing.

Pod2015
Ultra-low-budget SF that makes strangeness domestic and immediate. Both films trust performance over spectacle and find horror in the erosion of certainty about someone you thought you knew.
A woman visits her brother's house and begins to suspect he's been replaced by something else. Creeping dread, intimate geography, committed performances in a single location.
But Microbudget production values show. The twist divides audiences sharply on rewatches.

People
Cast
Christopher WalkenWhitley Strieber
Lindsay CrouseAnne Strieber
Frances SternhagenDr. Janet Duffy
Andreas KatsulasAlex
Terri HanauerSarah- Joel CarlsonAndrew Strieber
John Dennis JohnstonFireman
DeeDee RescherMrs. Greenberg- Aileen FitzpatrickMother
- R.J. MillerFather
Holly FieldsPraying Mantis Girl
Juliet SorciSecond Grade Girl
Directing
- Philippe MoraDirector
Writing
- Whitley StrieberBook
- Whitley StrieberScreenplay
Production
- Richard A. StrieberAssociate Producer
- Penny PerryCasting
- Edward SimonsCo-Producer
- Gary BarberExecutive Producer
- Paul RedshawExecutive Producer
- Dan AllinghamProducer
- Philippe MoraProducer
- Whitley StrieberProducer
Recommended by
Fire in the Sky, Sphere, Strange Invaders, Extraterrestrial, Phoenix Forgotten, The Fourth Kind, Hangar 10, The UFO Incident, The Boogens