X
- 2018
- R
- Focus Features
- 1 h 51 m
- 2018
- R
- Focus Features
- 1 h 51 m
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 its inha...
Directed By: Lenny Abrahamson
Written By: Lucinda Coxon, Sarah Waters
- 2018
- R
- Focus Features
- 1 h 51 m
- 2018
- R
- Focus Features
- 1 h 51 m
The Little Stranger
67
6.0
Where to Watch
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 its inha...
Directed By: Lenny Abrahamson
Written By: Lucinda Coxon, Sarah Waters
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
67
68% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
32% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 Critic Reviews
67
68% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
32% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
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.
A slow-building shiver of a movie, The Little Stranger tells a familiar but pleasurably engrossing story.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 User Ratings
6.0
36% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
48% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
15% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 User Ratings
6.0
36% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
48% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
15% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
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-.
Report
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 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.
Report
Don’t expect any hokey scare tactics here. Under the steady hand of Oscar-nominated director Abrahamson (Room), the film is a calculated slow burn, one that plays a cunning head game with those viewers willing to be entranced.
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.
All in all, it’s just a little underdeveloped. Perhaps in novel form its polite pace and subtle revelations made a certain amount of sense, but the movie is lacking.
Waters' novel was content to let the evil within Hundreds Hall remain shapeless and nameless. Director Lenny Abrahamson's (Room) movie wants to give it definite shape, and even a name, though the movie is not better for it.
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.
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. 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 **** 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.
Report
This little film is one of those spooky stories that I like a lot yet never feels quite solid to be honest.
It's gonna sound weird but even though Domhnall Gleeson gives a good performance, it was hard for me watching him in this genre. Felt like an outsider.
Nonetheless I liked it, although I wasn't blown away but I think it's a pretty good choice anytime. I'm also really interested in getting the book in which the script is based.
Report
(Mauro Lanari)
Much closer to the experience of reading a book than watching a movie, as if the film adaptation had vanished, sunk by the excessive literariness of the directorial style that also frustrates the rare wriggles.
Report
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 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.
Report
Production Company
Focus Features International (FFI),
Pathé,
Film4,
Ingenious Media,
Bord Scannán na hÉireann / The Irish Film Board,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
Potboiler Productions,
Element Pictures
Release Date Aug 31, 2018
Duration 1 h 51 m
Rating R
Tagline These Delusions Are Contagious
Awards
Irish Film and Television Awards
• 2 Nominations
London Critics Circle Film Awards
• 1 Nomination
Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Nomination
