The Little Stranger

Name: The Little Stranger
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Released: August 31, 2018
Duration: 111 min
Rating: 67
Cast: Alison Pargeter, Amy Marston, Anna Madeley, Camilla Arfwedson, Charlotte Rampling

2018

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Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Ratings

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6.0	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Ratings

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The Little Stranger

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Movie Details & Credits

20th Century Fox | Release Date: August 31, 2018 | R

Starring: Alison Pargeter, Amy Marston, Anna Madeley, Camilla Arfwedson, Charlotte Rampling, Darren Kent, Dixie Egerickx, Domhnall Gleeson, Harry Hadden-Paton, Josh Dylan, Kate Phillips, Liv Hill, Lorne MacFadyen, Ruth Wilson, Sarah Crowden, Thea Balich, Tim Ingall, Tim Plester, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Will Poulter

Summary: Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), the son of a housemaid, has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and itsDr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), the son of a housemaid, has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants - mother, son and daughter - are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own.… Expand

Director: Lenny Abrahamson

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 111 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Alan Zilberman

Aug 30, 2018

As a director, Abrahamson uses that sense of the detached observer as a scalpel, whittling away at our expectations of horror films until we have no choice but to look at — and really listen to — what is happening. It’s an approach that requires patience, on his part and ours, but the rewards are worth it. Read full review

A.A. Dowd

Aug 30, 2018

In truth, The Little Stranger is barely a horror movie at all. It’s more of an impeccably crafted chamber drama with a supernatural bent, like Edith Wharton by way of Shirley Jackson. Read full review

Guy Lodge

Aug 30, 2018

Wilson’s extraordinary performance rules the film, weaving a lifetime of accumulating disappointment into a single arched eyebrow. Read full review

Peter Travers

Aug 31, 2018

Kudos to Wilson (how has she not won an Emmy for her brilliant work on The Affair?), who builds what seems at first like a peripheral character into the defiant soul of the movie. Read full review

Dominick Suzanne-Mayer

Aug 30, 2018

The Little Stranger slowly mutates into a harrowing treatise on the ways in which absolute privilege can corrupt absolutely. Read full review

Empire Helen O'Hara

Sep 24, 2018

This lacks the sting in the tail of something like the similarly post-War The Others, but it offers a soupy atmosphere of low-level dread and paints a devastating portrait of a vanishing age. Read full review

Keith Uhlich

Aug 30, 2018

Gleeson plays the role with the kind of full-bore commitment (every supercilious gesture precise and intelligently thought through) that makes you wish the movie better complemented his efforts. Read full review

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User Reviews

GinaK

Sep 4, 2018

Definitely this is not a traditional horror film and it’s not even a traditional ghost story. I won’t tell you what it is really about because it will ruin the film for you, but be warned that there are no traditional horror film “scare” tactics. However, the film is excellent, and muchDefinitely this is not a traditional horror film and it’s not even a traditional ghost story. I won’t tell you what it is really about because it will ruin the film for you, but be warned that there are no traditional horror film “scare” tactics. However, the film is excellent, and much better than a lot of cliché-filled “scary movies,” and the horror is even less overt than in, for example, Robert Wise’s wonderful film of Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. The actors here, especially Charlotte Rampling, Ruth Wilson, and Domhnall Gleeson, are all excellent and so is Lenny Abrahamson’s direction. It helps to read the book by Sarah Waters, which I did, and I liked both the film and the book equally.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

BrianMcCritic

Dec 5, 2018

A slow psychological film that I became more and more immersed in. The performances are all strong but shout out to Ruth Wilson who I feel was the heart beat of the film. Director Lenny Abrahamson sets the tone and it worked with me. Overall a low 8 an A-.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Titusroo

Sep 2, 2018

This is the summer movie I've been patiently waiting for. I loved most everything about this film: its slow building moodiness and ominous sense that something awful could be present. It doesn't spoon feed you and is unsettling in the most rewarding way; it plays with your imagination. IThis is the summer movie I've been patiently waiting for. I loved most everything about this film: its slow building moodiness and ominous sense that something awful could be present. It doesn't spoon feed you and is unsettling in the most rewarding way; it plays with your imagination. I loved disciplined performances in this film. I think it's the kind of movie that sets itself up for criticism by being too nuanced. It sucks you into its world of class consciousness and dread. I had a lot of fun with this film and feel that it deserves a little more applause. Lenny Abrahamson is fast becoming one of my favourite storytellers.… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

Bertaut1

Sep 27, 2018

An "atmospheric chamber drama" without any atmosphere, and precious little drama

The Little Stranger was a huge box office bomb ($417,000 gross in its opening weekend), and easily the weakest film in director Lenny Abrahamson's thus far impressive oeuvre. Based on Sarah Waters's 2009 novel,An "atmospheric chamber drama" without any atmosphere, and precious little drama

The Little Stranger was a huge box office bomb ($417,000 gross in its opening weekend), and easily the weakest film in director Lenny Abrahamson's thus far impressive oeuvre. Based on Sarah Waters's 2009 novel, the story takes in Warwickshire, 1948. Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is a country physician obsessed with the opulent Hundreds Hall estate where his mother worked as a maid. However, by 1948, Hundreds is in a state of disrepair, with the Ayers family who own it are in serious financial trouble; Angela (Charlotte Rampling), matriarch of the dynasty, 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 with the family. 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.

With this in mind, the main theme of the film is Faraday's attempts to ingratiate himself with the Ayers', to transform himself into a blue blood, with his commitment to his own upward mobility 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.

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 generic tropes. I understand what Abrahamson was trying to do. The problem is that he also shuns the standard alternative to jump scares - creeping existential dread - and as a result, it remains all very subtle, and all very, very boring.

One of the main issues is Faraday's emotional detachment. I get that he's the ostensible villain, so we're not meant to empathise with him. However, Gleeson practically sleepwalks his way through the film, getting excited or upset about (almost) nothing. I know detachment is precisely the point, but, firstly, we've seen Gleeson play this character multiple times 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 the repetitive script, the film is just insanely and unrelentingly dull. Now, I don't mind films in which nothing dramatic happens, but in The Little Stranger nothing whatsoever happens, dramatic or otherwise. The pacing is absolutely torturous.

One thing I will praise unreservedly, however, is the sound design. For example, 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 near the end of the film. As Angela examines a room, the distorted and difficult to identify sound becomes deafening. 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.

However, beyond that, this just did nothing for me; I didn't care about any of the characters, 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Rebecca31

Oct 8, 2018

I recently gave out about a certain horror movie that was loud, over the top and in your face it became boring so in a way I think I deserved this. The Little Stranger is extremely subtle and dull I've never had to try so hard to fight off sleep during a movie.

Doctor Faraday (DomhnallI recently gave out about a certain horror movie that was loud, over the top and in your face it became boring so in a way I think I deserved this. The Little Stranger is extremely subtle and dull I've never had to try so hard to fight off sleep during a movie.

Doctor Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) pays a visit to the incredibly creepy and deteriorating Ayres mansion, a house that he remembers from his childhood and soon gets to know the people still left in it. Although the rest of the community seems reluctant to have any dealings with the Ayres, Faraday is drawn to them. Yet the more time he spends there he more he starts to realise that things may not be quite what they seem. The house has become neglected, run down and the family living there appear to be haunted by something unknown. I wasn't invested in the story and I felt there was too little happening. The character development seemed forgotten and the entire time I was waiting for something to happen only to have nothing happen. It's incredibly atmospheric and builds the increasing sense of dread that other horror movies fail miserably at but with no payoff. I really felt like I wasted my time on this one. Yet I'm just one opinion, you may feel differently so The Little Stranger is recommended for the Domhnall Gleeson/Lenny Abrahamson fans. Although be sure to hurry up and catch this one because it won't be in the cinemas much longer. Two stars for Will Poulter's performance because he was the only character I was interested in and there wasn't enough of him.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Davrosdaleks1

Sep 2, 2018

This film is about a British doctor, who comes from a poor family, in post-World War II England, who befriends a financially troubled aristocratic family whose house may be haunted.

I deeply regret seeing this. The trailer does a good job of tricking you into thinking this is something itThis film is about a British doctor, who comes from a poor family, in post-World War II England, who befriends a financially troubled aristocratic family whose house may be haunted.

I deeply regret seeing this. The trailer does a good job of tricking you into thinking this is something it is not. Sad thing is I'd looked at reviews for the original book this was based on and was aware this was supposed to be more psychological than a straight-up ghost story. Yet, I was still unprepared for the content. Although the movie starts out well enough, it becomes a terribly slow affair. Once the characters' motivations and personalities are revealed, the whole thing is a slog of repetitive chraracter traits and awkwardness by and/or between characters. Events are telegraphed way, way ahead of time. It doesn't help that this movie is as depressing and morose as all get out. That's not to say that I'm anti-depressing films in general. There are some really good ones out there (i.e. Grave of the Fireflies). This, however, doesn't have much to justify its existence.

To its credit, visually it is competently directed. The dilapidated old house looks quite good. The acting is all top-notch as well.

I haven't left a movie in such a bitter mood in a long, long time. I advise you to avoid this.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

MickeyFinn

Nov 8, 2022

A dreadful waste of time. Though well executed, the whole is just boring and inconsistent af. I mean is there a ghost (how Angela gets cuts out of thin air ?), is the doctor a psycho, is he posessed, did he cast a gypsy.. sorry a lower class redhead viking curse on the gentle nobles ? OrA dreadful waste of time. Though well executed, the whole is just boring and inconsistent af. I mean is there a ghost (how Angela gets cuts out of thin air ?), is the doctor a psycho, is he posessed, did he cast a gypsy.. sorry a lower class redhead viking curse on the gentle nobles ? Or maybe poverty triggers psychic powers in upper classes...Take a pick already and stick to it ffs because they're all in there. There wasn't enough time for aliens and zombies probably. Oh and nazis. And chinese, since the culprit is named 'Yu'. Upper or lower class chinese, that is the real question . To be avoided… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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