Encounter with the Unknown

The film opens by presenting three allegedly true supernatural stories and introduces Dr. Jonathan Rankin as the parapsychologist behind the research. Rod Serling provides the main narrative voice for the segments, while the opening and closing portions feature a second, uncredited narrator. This frame sets up a blend of folklore and mystery that the stories within will explore.

Johnny Davis's funeral brings together his friends Dave, Frank, and Randy, who are haunted by the prank that led to his death. They had lured Johnny to an certain address where a date awaited him, but an elderly woman living there accidentally shot him. Johnny's grieving mother, the seventh daughter of a seventh son, blames the three and hints at a cryptic omen that will haunt them.

Mrs. Davis recites a cryptic warning about one by land, two by sky and seven times around, blaming the three for Johnny's death. Her words imply a doom that will strike the trio as time passes. The prophecy hangs over them, casting a shadow over their futures.

Frank relates the entire sequence to Father Duane on a plane, recounting that Dave was killed seven days after Johnny's funeral. The recounting plants the seeds of superstition in the priest and tightens the sense that a pattern may be at work. The setting shifts from the funeral to the sky-bound conversation.

During the flight, the priest tries to ease Frank's fear, but tragedy strikes when the plane crashes on takeoff. As Frank lies dying, he notes that fourteen days have passed since Johnny's burial, reinforcing the eerie countdown. The catastrophic event accelerates the ominous timeline.

Back on solid ground, Father Duane attempts to contact Randy but learns from a roommate that Randy has gone skydiving. The priest recalls the prophecy that two of the young men would perish by sky, an ominous hint that the pattern may not be coincidence. This moment places the trio on a dangerous, foretold path.

The Darkness begins in rural Missouri in the early twentieth century, when a boy's dog disappears near a mysterious hole in the ground. The father volunteers to descend by rope to recover the dog and to discover what is making the moaning sounds. The descent marks the start of a chilling, unsolved mystery.

As the father descends, a terrifying scream erupts from the depths and he is hoisted back up a changed man. The encounter shatters the father's sense of reality and foreshadows a lasting curse on the family. The horrors of the pit linger long after the ascent.

The father spends the rest of his life in an insane asylum, a broken man whose experiences remain a whispered legend. The hole's mystery remains unsolved, leaving the family with a chilling, unresolved question. The tale closes on the tone of lingering dread.

In Arkansas, a disoriented girl is picked up by a state senator and his wife who offer her a ride home. Much of the story unfolds through the girl's flashbacks, hinting at a past she cannot fully recall. The scene settles into a tense journey toward an unknown destination.

When they reach the address the girl had given, she vanishes from the back seat, leaving the senator and his wife in startled silence. The girl's elderly father answers the door and reveals that his daughter died years earlier in a car accident after disapproving of her relationship; he would rather see her dead. The twist reaffirms the tale as a version of the vanishing hitchhiker legend.