Encounter with the Unknown is a 1972 American anthology horror film directed by Harry Thomason in his directorial debut, and narrated by Rod Serling.

On the runway, Father Duane attempts to comfort a dying Frank, who tells him that exactly fourteen days have passed since Johnny's burial.

The troubled priest—beginning to suspect that there might be more to this pattern of deaths than mere chance—speaks to his superior, who suggests telephoning the remaining young man at the state university.

The second story, "The Darkness," is set in rural Missouri during the early twentieth century and involves the disappearance of a boy's dog in the vicinity of a mysterious hole in the ground.

Concerned about the inexplicable moaning sounds coming from the hole, the boy's father agrees to be lowered in on a rope to see if he can recover the dog and to find out what's making the noise.

The mystery of the hole is never solved, and the story closes with the narrator's revelation that the father spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

The girl's elderly father answers the door, telling the senator that his daughter died in a car accident many years earlier when she and her boyfriend were leaving town to get married.