The Little Stranger (2018) User Reviews

it's missing something, but I'm not sure what

[Quinoa1984 · 6/10 · 13 September 2018]

I'll be kind to this film in this respect: Lenny Abrahamson didn't set out to play by the usual (or at least de rigeur) rules that govern a lot of creepy-old house stories, as this is about 90% of the time a drama with some touches of very staid and not-all-there romance, and then in the last third he and his crew try their hand at a couple of sequences where some supernatural entity attacks a couple of the characters left in the Hundred's (sic) Hall in this small provincial English town (which you know is far from most civilization as characters talk of London like it's some far away distant land, and this is in the 1930's I think).

The studio who put this out may have been between a rock and a hard place: how to sell a movie that has the veneer of Gothic Horror, but doesn't have the passions of a Jane Eyre (I believe Focus Features, which also put out the 2011 Eyre, put this out too), or Crimson Peak (which I now love even more for just GOING FOR IT as far as a massively extravagant stylistic experience). And for some reason, perhaps due to the bankability(?) of Domnhall Gleeson - who I like a lot generally, especially now as General Hux in the new Star Wars - it was released on more screens than it should have been at an inopportune time. I wish it had done better in some capacity, maybe at an earlier time in the year when people might not be busy with the Back to School season, or with less awards-fare competition, but.... it may just be that it's "Alright" quality was going to leave it struggling. Not to mention that poster; like, what the hell IS that? Terrible.

Anyway, The Little Stranger isn't as dull as you've heard, at least if you stick with it past its opening half hour. Except for a somewhat nutty and make-up overloaded performance from Will Poulter, it starts off as dry as an eraser-board. Maybe some of it is due to the mood of this emotionally tight English feeling of the early 20th century, or the place this Hall is at in general, but it is hard to get into this mood at first with the color scheme on the gray side (which, yeah, again it is England on any given day, I get it). Once the plot really kicks in as far as it goes, that this Dr Faraday becomes ensconced with this family, most especially Ruth Wilson, and they showed a bit more of Faraday's backstory of his attachment (or his unspoken terror) of the Hall from when he was a boy, then I started to want to know more about what was going on and where it goes to.

And with Gleeson here, he's... good, but something I can't really vocalize or think right now holds him back somehow. That may be by design, either in the writing or from Abrahamson, but he is *so* reserved that you suspect he may be hiding something, until it is beyond the point of caring what it may be about. He may be both entirely right *and* entirely wrong for this part, if that makes sense, as a doctor who is supposed to ignite something in the Wilson character - will she leave this place, maybe marry, find some other path in life than staying in this house, and she actually has a more interesting arc in that respect than he does -but ultimately there's complications if nothing else from the Hall itself... or the perception of things going on in it. So I'm not going to say he's miscast, as he does what he can, but maybe it's some misdirection somehow, or that if there was something more in the book this was based on it never got off the page.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'll still be happy to see a performance from him that is just 'Okay' than by many others who don't rise up to the challenge. And Poulter, Wilson and Charlotte Rampling are all doing excellent work from what they're given (Wilson particularly near the end reminded me why I grew fond of her difficult character on The Affair). And the Hall itself can't help but he an intriguing location to shoot in. However, when this reaches into its last third, I can't help but feel its dips into horror take away from what would be a more... I'm not sure, emotionally complex given how much the filmmakers try to make it more about the characters than about the kind of schlocky jump scare horror effects that go out to the popcorn audiences. In other words, I get why it does become a horror movie in its last third, but something feels lost in the process.

This may seem like a higher star rating than it deserves, but I didn't dislike this film. I think Abrahamson is too skilled at making good scenes and some impactful images (i.e. Poulter burning that bookcase, the dance scene) for it to be a total disappointment. That said, after the one-two punch of ROOM and the underrated rock and roll trip FRANK, it feels like a step down in some way that's hard to articulate even after stepping out of the theater.

a bad feeling gone wrong

[ferguson-6 · 5/10 · 30 August 2018]

Greetings again from the darkness. Director Lenny Abrahamson's follow up to his stellar film ROOM (Oscar nominated for Best Picture and Best Director) is based on Sarah Waters graphic novel, and adapted for the screen by Lucinda Coxon (THE DANISH GIRL). Very early on, the film succeeds in giving viewers that "I have a bad feeling" sensation ... usually a very good sign for films in this genre.

The always excellent Domhnall Gleeson stars as Faraday, the local town doctor called out to check on the lone remaining housekeeper at Hundreds Hall. For a couple hundred years, it's been the Ayres family home, and though, in its past, a glorious fixture among Britain's elite, the home, grounds and family themselves are all now little more than a distant memory of their once great selves. When he was a mere lad, Faraday's mum had served on staff, and his memories of the grand palace are jolted by the sight of its current dilapidated state.

The Ayres family now consists of Charlotte Rampling as the matriarch who has yet to move past the death of her beloved daughter Susan so many years ago; Will Poulter as Roderick, the son who was disfigured and maimed during the war; and Ruth Wilson as surviving daughter Caroline, who seems to have surrendered any semblance of life in order to care for her mother, brother, and home ... each in various stages of ill-repair.

This is a strange family who mostly keep to themselves, well, except for Faraday who seems drawn to the family ... or is it the house? Even his romantic interest in Caroline could be seen as an excuse to regularly return to the house. His flashbacks to childhood and a festival held on the estate grounds provide glimpses of his connection, but with Gleeson's mostly reserved façade, we never really know what's going on in his head.

Part haunted house, part ghost story, and part psychological thriller; however, it's really not fully any of these. There seems to be a missing link - something for us to grab hold of as viewers. The film is wonderfully cloaked in dread and looks fabulous - replete with ominous music and a creepy old mansion. Unfortunately those things are accompanied by the slowest build up in cinematic history. "A snail's pace" is too kind as a description. The film is very well acted, but horror films and thrillers need more than atmosphere, otherwise frustration sets in with the viewer. There is little doubt this played much better on the pages of Ms. Waters' book.

Stiff, claustrophobic horror drama with meager results

[PotassiumMan · 5/10 · 4 September 2018]

What can you say about a film that feels hours longer than it actually is? One thing I would declare without apology is that it better have a powerful resolution. In other words, a film that feels so arduous to get through better be that way for a good reason. Because if it doesn't have a solid payoff, then what was the point of making the audience sit through endless stretches of nothingness? That's what is done here too often.

A film that is sluggish, dour and interminable is not going to get much recognition for anything, even if the cast does a decent job. Here, Domhnall Gleeson is a British doctor who comes to an old estate owned by a wealthy aristocratic family, one that he came to know as a child. Gleeson does his best with the sandpaper-dry screenplay, but his efforts are for naught. Director Lenny Abrahamson appears to have taken too deliberate an approach. There's nothing wrong with a film relying on subtle horror, as this is based on a novel. The problem is, a big chunk of the film is so sedate that one will either be starved for interest by the time things pick up or will just plain want the film to end as I did. The film's lethargy made me check the time, something I never do anymore. It simply took too long for anything to happen here.

Notwithstanding my respect for the talent involved in this film, I decline to recommend it as it had me begging for the closing credits to run. An ending to a film has rarely felt so far away as it did here.

An "atmospheric chamber drama" without any atmosphere

[Bertaut · 5/10 · 28 September 2018]

I remember when I first saw Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice (2014) (which I loved), a colleague of mine (who hated it) was unable to grasp why I had enjoyed it so much. I tried to explain that if he had read Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel, he'd have appreciated the film a lot more, to which he posited, "one shouldn't have to read the book in order to appreciate the film." I think I mumbled something about him being a philistine, and may have thrown some rocks at him at that point. So imagine my chagrin when I watched the decidedly underwhelming The Little Stranger, a huge box office bomb ($417,000 gross in its opening weekend in the US), and easily the weakest film in director Lenny Abrahamson's thus far impressive oeuvre. You see, I really disliked it, but the few people I know who have read Sarah Waters's 2009 novel (which I have not), have universally loved it, telling me I would have liked it a lot more if I was familiar with the source material. To them, I can say only this - "one shouldn't have to read the book in order to appreciate the film." It seems my colleague was right after all. I hate that.

Warwickshire, England, 1948. Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is a country physician obsessed with the opulent Hundreds Hall estate, owned by the aristocratic Ayers family, where his mother worked as a maid. However, by 1948, Hundreds is in a state of disrepair, with the Ayers in serious financial trouble. The house is now home to only four people - Angela Ayers (Charlotte Rampling), matriarch of the Ayers dynasty, and who never recovered from the death of her eight-year-old daughter, Susan; Caroline (Ruth Wilson), her daughter; Roderick (Will Poulter), Angela's son, a badly-burned RAF pilot suffering from PTSD; and Betty (Liv Hill), the maid. When Betty takes ill, Faraday is summoned, soon ingratiating himself into the family, and becoming a semi-permanent presence in Hundreds. However, as mysterious things start to happen, Angela becomes convinced the spirit of Susan is with them. Meanwhile, Faraday and Caroline become romantically involved.

Aspiring to blend elements of "big house"-based mystery narratives such as Jane Eyre (1847), Great Expectations (1861), and Rebecca (1938), with more gothic-infused ghost stories such as "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), The Turn of the Screw (1898), and The Haunting of Hill House (1959), The Little Stranger is not especially interested in the supernatural aspects of the story per se. In this sense, Abrahamson and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon have, to a certain extent, created an anti-ghost story which eschews virtually every trope of the genre. More a chamber drama than anything else, the film has been done absolutely no favours whatsoever by its trailer, which emphasises the haunted house elements and encroaching psychological dread. Indeed, to even mention the supernatural elements at all is essentially to give away the last 20 minutes of the film, as this is where 90% of them are contained.

The main theme of the film is Faraday's attempts to ingratiate himself with the Ayers family, to transform himself into a fully-fledged blue blood, even when doing so goes against his medical training; his commitment to his own upward mobility is far stronger than his commitment to the Hippocratic Oath. He is immediately dismissive of the possibility of any supernatural agency in the house, and, far more morally repugnant, he does everything he can to convince those who believe the house is haunted that they are losing their minds, that the stress of what has happened to the family has pushed them to the point of a nervous breakdown. He's also something of a passive-aggressive misogynist, telling Caroline, "you have it your way - for now", and "Darling, you're confused". For all intents and purposes, Faraday is the villain of the piece, which is, in and of itself, an interesting spin on a well-trodden narrative path.

However, for me, virtually nothing about the film worked. Yes, it has been horribly advertised, and yes, it is more interested in playing with our notions of what a ghost story can be, subverting and outright rebelling against the tropes of the genre. I understand what Abrahamson was trying to do, however, so too does The Little Stranger shun the standard alternative to jump scares - creeping existential dread - and as a result, it remains all very subtle, and all very, very boring - the non-supernatural parts of the story give us nothing we haven't seen before, and the supernatural parts simply fall flat.

One of the main issues for me is Faraday's emotional detachment. I get that he's the ostensible villain, so we're not meant to empathise with him, and, as an unreliable narrator, his very role is to objectively undermine the subjective realism of the piece. However, Gleeson practically sleepwalks his way through the entire film, getting excited or upset about (almost) nothing; on a stroll through the estate with Caroline, she apologises for dragging him out into the cold, and he replies, "Not at all. I'm enjoying myself very much", in the most dead-tone unenthusiastic voice you could possibly imagine, sounding more like he is having his testicles sandpapered. So I know detachment is precisely the point, but, firstly, we've seen Gleeson play this exact same character before - all brittle, buttoned-down intellectualism - and secondly, he comes across as more robotic than detached, and after twenty minutes, I was thoroughly bored of him, and just stopped caring.

Partly because of this, and partly because of Coxon's repetitive script, the film is just insanely and unrelentingly dull. Now, I don't mind films in which nothing dramatic happens (The Rider (2017), which barely even has a plot, is one of my films of the year), but in The Little Stranger nothing whatsoever happens at all, dramatic or otherwise. Instead, the script just goes round and round, through the motions; "this house is haunted" - "no, you're just tired" - "you're probably right" - "I am, have a lie down" - "okay. Wait, this house is haunted" - "no, you're just tired", etc.; wash, rinse, repeat. The pacing is absolutely torturous, and I certainly envy anyone who was able to get more out of the narrative than the opportunity to take a nap.

One thing I will praise unreservedly is the sound design. Foregrounded multiple times, this aspect of the film often becomes more important than the visuals. For example, sound edits often bridge picture edits in both directions (L Cuts and J Cuts). Similarly, we repeatedly experience the sound of one scene carrying over into the image of another well beyond the edit itself, so much so that it becomes a motif, suggesting a distortion of reality. Just prior to a dog attack, the sound becomes echo-like and the picture starts to move in and out of focus, as the camera shows Faraday in a BCU, suggesting he is becoming unglued from his environment. This also happens later on with Roderick, just prior to a fire. Perhaps the most interesting scene from an aural perspective is a scene in the nursery near the end of the film. As Angela examines the room, the distorted and difficult to identify sound becomes unrelenting (it is easily the loudest scene in the film). However, as the other characters run through the house towards the noise, all sound is pulled out almost entirely, with only the barest hint of footfalls detectable. This is extremely jarring and extremely effective, working to emphasise the dread all of the characters are by now feeling.

However, beyond that, this just did nothing for me; there was nothing I could get my teeth into, I didn't care about any of the characters beyond the first half hour, the social commentary was insipid and said nothing of interest, the supernatural aspects are so underplayed as to be virtually invisible, and, most unforgivably, the film is terminally boring. Maybe if I'd read the book...

A Very Slow Burn

[Mehki_Girl · 6/10 · 1 September 2018]

We saw this in a very quiet theater with older adults (so are we).

I love British films. The restraint. The smoldering sexuality that never quite expresses itself. All those pent up emotions. Can they become ghosts?

But I kept thinking, what am I watching? Horror? Ghost story? Love story? Psychological drama? Mental illness transference?

This is a very, very, very slow burn. Lots of loneliness. Long shots. Quiet moments. What are we seeing?

Is it ambiguous? Or straight forward? Is someone up to something?

Did Caroline almost get it right?

Frankly, I think so but a little too late.

A Theory About This Film

[ramblingvagabond · 4/10 · 2 May 2020]

My theory is that the doctor was behind it all along. If you look at the ending, when she said "You", it's because she was shocked to find the doctor in the house, and the realization hit her that he was the one who had been doing the knocking and other things.

Faraday wanted the house, he wanted to live the rich life, and the best way to do it was to get rid of the people who either would object to their marriage or disapprove of them living their if they were married.

He was very manipulative. We saw that in how he would speak to the family members, how he would treat them. "I'm the doctor, I decide who is well," and "You are just tired," and other things. He was a very stiff, morose man, and prone to be domineering. In the end, when he realized he couldn't have Caroline, he decided to kill her.

Little Strange

[mymsnjw · 6/10 · 5 September 2018]

Slow burn, Lost interest at parts, Good Cinematography, Well acted, Confused at ending.

SPOILER ALERT! NOTHING HAPPENS!

[vilen-33179 · 2/10 · 4 September 2018]

I'm not one to leave a negative review normally (or any review for that matter), but what a snoozer. I've had more exciting naps. Great cast, but one of the most boring "horror" movies. I was unswayed but the sub 6 audience score after reading a few of the decent metacritic reviews. Boy, was I surprised. Very atmospheric, but little substance. An hour in I was checking my watch wondering when something interesting would happen, and continued to wonder until the closing credits. Very disappointed.

Solid 3 // Interesting psychological themes but fails to compel

[ccamp89 · 6/10 · 3 September 2018]

This is one of those films I wish I liked more than I actually did. The Little Stranger is a tough one to recommend because I'm unsure who exactly it would play well to. Personally, I'm a big fan of slow-paced, melancholic character studies with psychological themes. Sprinkle in some horror elements too? Yes please! If there's an audience for this, it definitely should've been me. But somehow, despite all the things I appreciated-the gothic sets, thick atmosphere, subtle storytelling, restrained chills, psychological focus-the film just failed to fully engage me.

It's unfortunate because of the clear attention and care that went into making this. The acting is strong, the story taken seriously, and the themes rich. What I appreciated most was the way in which the film takes the concept of a "ghost" and re-purposes it to explore how a seminal childhood experience can profoundly impact personality development and future, potentially pathological decision making. The film is constructed to force the audience to question Faraday's motivations in his uncanny attraction to the manor and its heirs. As more about his childhood is revealed, one event in particular, those motivations slowly gain focus: does he want to make amends? transcend his own social class? resolve an unconscious conflict? make his mother proud? Probably all of the above, to some degree. And the final twist at the end of the film is quite intelligent, giving a literal, supernatural explanation for the figurative way in which Faraday's childhood self has been sabotaging his adult life.

Even still, with all of the things the film has going for it, something is amiss. I think part of the problem is that it feels like a film with an identity crisis. It's part gothic romance, part dramatic character study, part mystery, part supernatural horror, and all of these disparate elements don't quite coalesce into a harmonious whole. In trying to do so much, it ends up feeling scattered. It also doesn't do a particularly good job at creating a sense of forward momentum in its narrative. It feels plodding and inconsequential for much of its runtime and sadly just fails to compel despite the strong final moments. As much as I appreciated the themes and the craft, the experience of actually watching the film isn't as entertaining as it could or should've been. Still, I'd give it a mild recommendation if any of the above sounds appealing. If you end up bored, don't say I didn't warn you.

Solid 3/5

Not worth it

[arimagal-136-856616 · 1/10 · 13 May 2019]

Very boring and slow. Plot goes nowhere at the end. Pointless.

This Explains The Movies Metaphors PERFECTLY!

[brentkingery-937-541108 · 10/10 · 11 September 2019]

There's a sinister secret nested snugly at the center of Lenny Abrahamson's "The Little Stranger." In trailers, this adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel seems a spooky haunted house tale set in the austere decadence of early Windsor-era England. For most of its runtime, the film appears a gothic romance in which the mild-mannered Doctor Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) must combat the unknown evil inhabiting the illustrious Hundreds Hall so he might marry its gruff but lovable heiress, Caroline Ayres (Ruth Wilson). But the haunting final image of "The Little Stranger" reveals something more cerebral and starkly feminist is at play within this unconventional horror story. "The Little Stranger" reveals the Ayres tragedy through the eyes of Faraday, a "common village boy" who grew up in the shadow of Hundreds Hall and became a respected doctor with a gentleman's manners. Through a reserved voiceover, he introduces audiences to the once affluent family whose fortunes have fallen-as their once pristine home has-into ruin. Still, Faraday is enchanted by the old house and by Caroline, a "terribly brainy girl" on the verge of spinsterhood, having squandered her promise and youth looking after her mother (Charlotte Rampling) and war-wounded brother Roderick (Will Poulter). Stoic and stalwart, Faraday provides a shoulder to cry on, a voice of reason, and even his hand in marriage. But he is not to be trusted by the Ayres or us. For Faraday is not the romantic hero he paints himself as, but an unreliable narrator and the source of the spiteful spirit that torments the Ayres to death because of a ferocious form of toxic masculinity. The final shot of the film reveals that the poltergeist of Hundreds Halls was a manifestation of Faraday's decades-long desire to possess the grand home. His passion for the place grew into an intense sense of male entitlement, believing deeply he was owed the thing as a reward for wanting it so desperately. And so a territorial and violent force was sparked. Over drinks, a colleague explains that extreme negative emotions can cause a subconscious break that could birth a poltergeist. For Faraday, this fateful moment occurred 30 years before, when he first snuck into the exquisite foyer of Hundreds Hall and broke a plaster acorn from its elaborate décor. In flashback, a foreboding rumbling precedes the horrid crack of plaster. Recalling it to Caroline, he rationalizes, "I wasn't trying to vandalize. I was overcome." Faraday compares himself to a lovesick man stealing a lock of hair from the woman he fancies. Caught up in his own desires, he ignores the violation and theft entailed in each act, reframing it as romantic and himself as the helpless victim of passion. As absurd as it seems, Faraday basically victim blames the house for his violation of it, suggesting Hundreds Hall was dressed too provocatively to be left unmolested. Faraday believes his passion for the house excuses this crime. But there will be more. And they will become more violent. The first victim of his poltergeist is young Suki Ayres, punished for witnessing his embarrassment at being slapped by his mother for his vandalism. Mrs. Ayres notes that was the very day her beloved first-born became mysteriously ill, before withering away to death. While Faraday went off to grow up and become a doctor, his poltergeist has lurked in the house, quietly resenting its residents. Upon his return to the village, the paranormal activity at the Hundreds Hall becomes more aggressive, a coincidence Caroline remarks on without understanding its significance. It was a poltergeist outburst that led to Betty calling for a doctor, which brought Faraday to the Ayres door. Every paranormal event after that can be seen as violent retaliations whenever Faraday feels rejected. The first comes during a cocktail party, where a little girl is abruptly mauled by Caroline's dog. The timing suggests this is no accident. Though the girl has been pestering the pet relentlessly, its off-screen attack occurs the moment after Faraday realizes the event is a matchmaking setup meant to pair Caroline with an arrogant, new-money ad-man. The hurt to his pride is taken out on the pretty blond girl, just as it was with Suki. The gruesome and inexplicable assault benefits Faraday three-fold. It scares off the would-be suitor, gives the doctor a chance to impress by swooping in to mend the wounded child, and offers an excuse to euthanize Caroline's beloved pet, eliminating one more rival for her affections. Whether Faraday realizes it or not, he is working in tandem with his poltergeist to achieve Hundreds Hall. When the polite and socially acceptable methods fail, his subconscious lashes out in violence. And their next obstacle and target will be Rod. Through voiceover, Faraday expresses a thinly veiled disdain for the limping man of the house, sneering, "I couldn't help but think the house deserved better." Implied is that Faraday is the better the house deserves. After all, Faraday is a dapper and dashing gentleman, while Rod a marred, drunken recluse with no hopes of finding a wife. Using his position as a trusted friend of the family and respected doctor, Faraday pushes to have Rod committed, arguing his plans to sell off part of the estate are deranged. When this fails, his poltergeist sets Rod's bedroom ablaze, nearly killing him and making him seem an unhinged danger to himself and others. So, Mrs. Ayres and Caroline take Faraday's recommendation and have their lone male heir exiled. The very next scene shows Faraday, smiling like the cat who caught the canary, as he cuts the Christmas roast. Blithely taking over the role of man of the house, he rejoices in voiceover, "It made me feel-just for a moment-a part of the life of the house." With Rod out of the way, Faraday ramps up his efforts to woo and wed Caroline, taking her to a dance, where his POV shot of watching her dance feels ominous, like a predator zeroing in on his prey. "What the house needs is a dose of happiness," he crows in his marriage proposal. But after Mrs. Ayres makes it clear that Faraday would only get this house over her dead body, his poltergeist terrorizes her with chilling sounds and vicious cuts, driving her to suicide. And once Caroline rejects him too, her death is imminent After she breaks off their engagement, Faraday laments, "Hundreds Hall was lost to me ... as was Caroline." At this moment, our unreliable narrator's true priorities are laid bare. This was never a love story about boy meets girl, but boy meets house. Caroline was a tool to him. That the object of Faraday's desires is a house and not actually Caroline emphasizes the dehumanizing nature of male entitlement, as entitled men do not regard the women they crave as people who have autonomy and the right to reject them, but as a thing they can grab. Their desire outweighs the feelings of its object. But once Faraday realizes that his manipulations and social niceties have failed to win him the prize of the girl-and by extension the house-his cool veneer cracks, unleashing into a flurry of fists and shouting in his car while his poltergeist pushes Caroline to her fatal fall off the balcony.

Through his plaintive voiceover, Faraday would have us believe that he is a romantic hero who fought for love and lost. He and his poltergeist never come face-to-face in the film, so perhaps he truly believes it. But "The Little Stranger" sees through his subterfuge. For even if Faraday is completely ignorant of how his true intentions influence the poltergeist, he knowingly uses his position of power as a doctor, a friend, and a gentleman to manipulate the Ayres to reach for his goal, no matter the cost. Yet there are moments where it seems he has some hint.

Looking back on his first day at Hundreds Hall, Faraday says, "I could not help but imagine I belonged. A proper little gentleman. Of course, I was no such thing." On the surface, it appears he's speaking about how his clothes made this commoner seem suitably posh. But on reflection, this line also speaks to his façade of gentility in adulthood. Outwardly, Faraday is calm, patient, and magnanimous toward the Ayres family. Hidden is his dangerous dark side that would rather see them dead than reject him, that would rather see Hundreds Hall abandoned than without him. Worse still, Faraday gets away with all his crimes, because who would believe such a nice, respectable man could be capable of such evil?

"The Little Stranger" is a horror story not about evil spirits or haunted houses, but about the too real terror born from toxic masculinity, which blinds men to their trespasses and threatens women with objectification and violence. The film sounds a warning, begging some to look past the nice guy veneers, and others to search the darkest corners of their desires. For we are not always the heroes we imagine ourselves to be.

It took me 6 days to watch because I kept falling asleep

[amberrotait · 6/10 · 13 June 2019]

So I initially put this movie on because I saw a trailer and it looked like a good period piece horror movie. However, upon watching this film, I realized it was just a dull period piece about a man obsessed with a house. And not just a house, the idea of being a rich man it seems. He grows up as a poor boy, and makes a trip with his family to this big mansion. He becomes enchanted and obsessed with the house and the pomp and pageantry that goes along with it. It seriously took me a span of 6 days to watch this movie because it is THAT BORING. I never fall asleep during movies, but this one knocked me out. I'm still not even sure what exactly happened in this movie to be honest. Did he kill Suki? Did he kill Mrs Aryes? Did he kill Miss Aryes? It shows him as a little boy at the very end looking over the banister so I suppose he gets rid of everyone so he can own the house himself? I suppose him as a little boy is just a metaphor for his little by obsession with the house, however I was left very confused. For those looking for a good horror movie, this isn't it. This movie is just a strange psychological piece on how hypocritical and obsessive this doctor is. Still left scratching my head and wondering why I even watched this to begin with.

Watch paint dry instead!

[marialiiva · 1/10 · 7 April 2019]

The only scary thing about this movie is the redheads orange moustache

The fall of the house of Ayres.

[dbdumonteil · 6 December 2020]

This movie about a haunting may disappoint a lot of fantasy and horror buffs; no special effects, no appearance of a ghost, no gore (or so little) .Essentially an atmosphere movie, where a force (perhaps stemming from a child dead well before his age ) is slowly but inexorably doing away with the members of a doomed family; the son, a maimed disfigured fighter in the war,is broke and has to sell acres of his properties .

A doctor,a scientific mind ,does not believe in a curse ;when he was a child,he used to come to the castle in its heyday ; in love with the daughter,he tries to save her from a doomed fate ;the mother (a wonderful Charlotte Rampling,who really ages gracefully ) seems to live in another age .

Close to Henry James ' world, it's a movie which grows on you ,but it demands your undivided attention.

Slow movie but stunning to look at

[Benslie · 5/10 · 4 November 2018]

One of the only things that was good about this film was the scenery. The scenery was stunning in practical all the scenes. The set desgins were also lovely. The sets looked like some out of the the 1940s. Domhnall Gleeson who plays Faraday also did his best in this film. He and Ruth Wilson were the only people in this film, in my opinion that were giving it their all. They don't have much emotion to give but they did stand out jobs. Now like I said before this movie is boring. Thank God the film had something nice to look at in the background because the dialogue in this is so bland and boring. Before watching this movie I read some articles on it and apparently this film was supposed to be three and a half hours long and I could tell. There were so many awkward and terrible transtions that made no snese, like there should of been a scene there but they cut it out. I can understand cutting it down but they could of made it so it was a different time length just so we can understand the story better. Also the story was so hard to follow. It was hard to follow because they have no backstory what so ever, like I said this is based off a book. And I couldn't figure out who and or what the main villain was, and I still don't know. I don't want to go on with how bad this movie was because I could. In the end this movie is really beautifully shot and the sets look gorgeous. So if you like well shot movies and or if you read the book then I recommend you see this movie but if not avoid this movie at all costs.

Novel doesn't always translate to film

[dominic-695-336744 · 7/10 · 1 September 2018]

While a wonderfully dark and beautiful film, we can only see a certain dimension of the doctor...which is quite a bit less than the novel reveals.

Boring as hell.

[magnus-stiberg · 3/10 · 14 November 2018]

I cant understand why so many love this movie. All Im left with is three questions.

1. Why did I spend almost two hours of my life on this? 2. Why did we not got some sort of answer to what was going on in that house. 3. Why did dr. Faraday act like he had not one but multiple sticks up his ass. One time in the whole movie he smiled.

Atmospheric, but very slow.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 16 December 2019]

I've read reviews and seen tags calling this a chiller, I must be seriously missing something, apart from about thirty seconds there was nothing chilling. I think this film would appeal to those that like costume dramas, it has that vibe. It looks lavish, the costumes are gorgeous. It has a lot of atmosphere, it's very moody, you'll watch this and keep expecting something to happen, although it does take some time to happen.

Very well acted, Ruth Wilson and Domhnall Gleeson are both incredible, they make the most of the script.

It's not a film I'll watch again for some time, but I enjoyed it very much. 7/10

Excellent book that was unfilmable

[Primerfan · 2/10 · 2 February 2019]

Yup, this movie is boring. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed the book. I do think that anything written in Sarah Waters' vivid, flowing prose would be worth reading; she could probably write about watching grass grow and it would be fascinating, but it wouldn't transfer well to film. Movie adaptations of her Fingersmith and Affinity were great, but that just wasn't possible with this story in which nothing much actually happens. Also, the book is written in the first person, which is difficult to transfer to film without extensive voiceover. In this case, the lack of first-person perspective muddies the ending for viewers who haven't read the book. And Ruth Wilson as an unattractive woman?! All the dowdy clothes and messy hair in the world couldn't pull that off.

"slow burn" is accurate

[RobLuvsTheMountains · 6/10 · 18 February 2019]

Saying this film is a slow burn is accurate. Especially considering one definition of slow burn is: "gradual but inexorable increase in anger, eventually becoming outright rage or fury." Faraday himself fits this definition. Which explains the events that slowly unfold. The acting, Gleeson especially, kept me interested; but I do not appreciate this much ambiguity in a movie, which is why i give it only 6 stars.

The Mindnumbing Rise of a Dull Social Climber

[Marc_Horrickan · 4/10 · 23 September 2018]

Lenny Abrahamson arrived on the film scene with the blistering double whammy of ADAM AND PAUL and GARAGE. Since then he has gone on to do the compelling and understated crime drama WHAT RICHARD DID, the madcap FRANK and the excellent film adaptation of ROOM. THE LITTLE STRANGER feels like the first misstep of his career.

Working from a Sarah Waters' novel that is full of her usual obsessions with class, status and outsider challenges to the British social order, Abrahamson's elegant aesthetic - first road-tested in WHAT RICHARD DID - opens out Hundreds Hall as an architectural manifestation of the decaying post-WII colonial order. There is plenty of eerie and uncanny atmosphere within the marginal spaces of this dilapidated Wiltshire country pile.

The matriarch of the Ayres family is played by the always watchable Charlotte Rampling, while Will Poulter and Ruth Wilson are both excellent as the Charlotte's living children - one a battle-scarred fighter pilot and the other the unsung brains behind what remains of the Ayres' agricultural operations. However, none of these characters are given as much screen time as the central figure of Dr. Faraday, played with dull restraint by the frequently unwatchable Domhnall Gleeson. In the best of his work the younger Gleeson is a callow or prickly presence - think EX MACHINA or that intensely weird episode of BLACK MIRROR. However, for my money he is too often coasting along in roles that require a little more intensity or nuance. In THE LITTLE STRANGER his conniving social climber owns the narrative, but drains all life from it with his blandly insipid presence.

It is a great shame, as Abrahamson has done so much of the hard work of creating mood and atmosphere, with a few scenes ascending to the realm of truly terrifying, especially a canine attack on an unsuspecting child. Yet with the film's focus firmly ensconced with an interminable central character and a not-so-mysterious plot, the film never really comes to life.

Dark, Gothic, Wonderfully Opaque

[tkmcc-08780 · 9/10 · 7 September 2018]

I fully expected a movie along the lines of VVitch or Annihilation, and I wasn't disappointed. It's a bit horror movie, possibly a ghost story, maybe a murder mystery and much a gothic drama. The suspense builds from the overwhelming sense of foreboding. There's a malevolent presence but the source is just not clear. You're sure something is going to happen, it'll likely be bad, and you're not sure what it is or what the cause is. Some reviewers were confused by the switching back and forth between past and present, main character narrative, half followed leads and choppiness - I think it's there on purpose to throw off the viewer, and it worked. Is it supernatural, is it madness, is it the supernatural causing madness or madness causing the supernatural? It's hard to tell what's behind the events but the frequent often conflicting and ambivalent clues keep the audience involved and guessing.

Several themes are at play here - class conflict, the decline of England after the world wars, unrequited love, the fall of a once great family, child and teen angst, family/child/parent conflict and dysfunction, rural vs. city lifestyle, male/female conflict, and more. Some are explored more than others, but overall it adds to the complexity and depth of the movie. There's enough here to likely get most people out of their comfort zones at least part of the time.

The buildup is a bit slow - maybe not so much a pacing problem as a slow burn that several reviewers have noted. If you're expecting lots of fast, horror action, this isn't a film for you. If you're looking for complexity, a enigma, and something different, you may like this movie too.

Perhaps the slowest film I've ever seen, yet it's strangely compelling.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 6/10 · 24 September 2018]

For a while, 'The Little Stranger (2018)' is more than intriguing but the problem is that it's just incredibly slow, and I do mean slow - to the point that it quite possibly feels like one of the longest films I've ever seen, despite its relatively short 110-minute runtime. This initially feeds into a sort of refreshing restraint and willingness to take its time but eventually removes all sense of urgency from the piece. It's not even a 'slow-burn', really, it's just slow. Still, this isn't the death of the picture. It leaves a conventional pacing behind, instead moving towards a more long-winded and subtle style of storytelling that distinctly marks it as an adaptation of a novel - a medium in which the same time-frame and lack of conventional genre-elements would be infinitely more accessible due to the access it affords to its characters' inner thoughts. This approach is certainly distinct, and appreciated, even if it isn't entirely successful. Much of the picture is told through hints, which you do have to look hard to see, as the majority of the narrative seems to focus solely on its protagonist and his relationships to the other core players as opposed to anything 'spooky' or 'supernatural'. In reality, this isn't really a 'horror' film at all, despite being essentially marketed as such. It plays out much more like a straight drama, with some mysterious and maybe even ghostly elements added infrequently into the fray. Even so, there's an intermittent yet powerful sense of something unseemly going on behind the scenes. It's actually explored in a skilful yet tenuous manner that eventually reveals its debatable but, either way, decidedly unique concept and, even, execution. The feature makes you wait for its more powerful moments, with its final shot possibly being the key to answering its many questions. I say "possibly" because almost everything is purposely open-ended, though I feel there is a definite preferred reading. It's a shame, then, that some moments seem to be slightly more explicit than they perhaps ought to be and that a couple of perspective shifts feel ever so slightly out of place, included simply to inject some 'excitement' into the narrative. While you can certainly feel the length, it's never exactly boring and I think that these more intense sequences ought to have been omitted to maintain the otherwise rigid first-person perspective and to really hammer home the story's ambiguity. Speaking of our protagonist, he is especially straight-faced and maintains a stiff upper-lip throughout. This can sometimes make him a tad difficult to empathise with, mainly because it is difficult to know what he's thinking or, more importantly, feeling at any given moment. This portrayal is vital, though, as the restraint he shows plays into the themes of class so integral to the narrative. Though he often makes stubborn decisions, we typically understand his perspective and know what he has or hasn't seen. Plus, when it is called for, a wide range of emotions can be seen bubbling behind his eyes and it is these moments that mark Domnhall Gleeson's performance as much more nuanced than it might, at first, appear. The other characters don't hide their emotions as much but the fear of being impolite or perhaps being viewed as 'of unsound mind' tends to get the better of them. All the actors do a great job with the material, especially Ruth Wilson who delivers a fantastically layered performance that often says a lot without saying anything at all. Overall, the feature does do an excellent job at emulating the classic ghost stories from the 1800s, the kind in which nothing is explicit and the scariest thing that happens is if an ill feeling grips the narrator. It does genuinely feel like a novel translated straight to the big-screen, for better or worse. Furthermore, it's a different take on a well-worn genre, one that eloquently calls back to its roots while taking a more restrained approach than perhaps usual. It's interesting, especially in its themes and ideas, but it isn't always entertaining and it does become slightly less engaging during its mid-section. Still, I'd say it's an enjoyable experience on the whole. 6/10.

Doctor should marry the house

[karmakay · 2/10 · 23 July 2019]

Boy this was a stinker! Great cast under used. The doctor in question is captivated by a bleeding house! Dont get me wrong Ive seen some barn conversions Id give my right leg for...but this guy is infatuated. Christine didnt seem interested in anything ( personally I think she was batting for the other team) and the ending didnt make any sense whatsoever! Was the house haunted? Was suki haunting the place? Was sweet Betty doing it all so she could go back home? Or was the Doctor alienating Christine from everyone just so he could marry her and make love to the house?. All questions I needed answered...all I got was that strange albino kid looking over the bannister. Bleh! What a crock

Soft, classy summer horror film.

[JohnDeSando · 30 August 2018]

The Little Stranger is a little stranger than most horror films: It's more psychological drama and less shock. It's an understated nerve racker that eats away at your anticipation till you're a part of the haunted house that captures most entering it. A pleasant summer thrill.

Post WWII 1948, Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) takes a call at Hundreds Hall, where mom was a maid and where the Ayres family is on its way to extinction, slowly and horror-film ominously. Yet there are no jump scares, no ugly beings, just the sense that things are not right, with a strange sound or rabid dog to keep the fans on edge.

As in Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, the Hundreds Hall's decay is figurative for the decline of family as well, no better example being the scarred and crippled Roderick (remember Roderick Usher?) from war, who is on the brink of letting the estate go to sale while he feels a bad karma in the house.

At the same time, faraday is telling us in flashback about his strange attachment to the estate from an early childhood party on its lawn after WWI, where celebrating the end of the war to end all wars introduced his working class sensibility to high class and a little girl who doesn't go away after she dies.

She seems to be the little stranger who still haunts Mrs. Ayres (Charlotte Rampling). At any rate, the film suggests an almost abnormal attachment by Faraday and a death struggling attachment by the rest of the family including his love interest, daughter Caroline (Ruth Wilson). From here the story takes some formulaic turns, no surprises.

Yet, The Little Stranger has a Brit restraint that lends itself some nice horror moments. Especially effective is director Lenny Abrahamson's, and his writers,' unwillingness to show too much or give answers even at the end. Classy little film.