Pathé, Potboiler Productions, Element Pictures,
Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, Charlotte Rampling, Liv Hill, Kate Phillips, Josh Dylan, Anna Madeley, Lorne MacFadyen, Sarah Crowden, Kathryn O’Reilly, Tim Plester
Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is a country doctor, who came from humble beginnings in the quiet English countryside. His mother was a housekeeper at Hundreds Hall, one of the stunning spectacular mansions of the past. When he was a child, his mother took him to a celebration at the house, and he was enthralled and instilled with the desire to fit into the gentry himself. In the summer of 1948, he is called to visit a patient in Hundreds Hall, and he becomes obsessed with the Ayer’s family who live there, but the house is in a shambles, and the great days of the past are long gone. He finds his patient Roderick (Will Pulter) and his sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson) who has just returned home to care for her brother and the aging mother (Charlotte Rampling) who are all that’s left in the decaying house. As Dr. Faraday gets more and more obsessed with inserting himself into what he remembers of the glory days of Hundreds Hall, he sets his sights on Caroline who is the unmarried heir of the family and the home. But everyone has a feeling that something is wrong at hundreds house, and someone or something wants to destroy everyone in the household. This mysterious Gothic style ghost story tells the events that happen in a slow, meticulous way that will give you the creeps.
The Little Stranger is advertised as a horror film, which it’s not, and it’s not really a ghost story either. The suspense is real though and I found it fascinating to spend some time watching this DVD. Many critics describe it as slow, which I understand, it is slow for sure, but the methodical deliberate way this story unfolds is very creating and artistic. Obviously some tragedy happened which leads to the destruction of the legacy of Hundreds Hall, but the director is not going to wrap it up and present it to you in the ending. It’s going to take some effort and heavy thinking before you’re going to be able to figure this one out. Many people do not like movies that make you work. Most people are going to either turn this off in the first half hour, or stick with it and find themselves thinking about it for a long while. I did enjoy this movie, and found it very out of the ordinary, which is why I did enjoy it. The key to understanding is to realize before you go in, that this is a psychological study of Dr. Faraday and his burning desire to move up in his station. Being a respected doctor is not enough, he wants to be an aristocrat at whatever the cost. This is not a ghoulish ghost story with lots of blood and guts, but rather a suspenseful journey through some very dark places with a lot of quiet terror along the way. It was very well done, if you know what you’re going into, but if you’re looking for a teen slasher, this isn’t going to make it happen for you. If you can handle a classic horror tale of the old days, this is a good period piece of post war Britain and the mysterious goings on in this house.
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