The Current Cinema 18.5

The Little Stranger

A diffuse haunted house story, Lenny Abrahamson's "The Little Stranger" works because of the creaky, atmospheric world-building it establishes in the first half before turning towards supernatural eeriness in the second. It won't satisfy everyone, though. Very mannered and stiff-upper-lip-British to an extreme, the film is actually more of a psychological early twentieth century love story than a horror film. As the local doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) is a muted and internal figure slowly obsessed by a large manor he once visited as a child. His profession finally gives him the chance to explore the house properly when he's called upon to treat the afflicted ex-World War I son (Roderick Ayers) of the house years later and falls in love with his older sister (Ruth Wilson, poised to have a breakout fall season). Strange things have been going on in the house, such as bells that ring in every room for the maid service and a strikingly realized dog attack during a party. Abrahamson (based on a novel Sarah Waters) doesn't strain to terrify...... that comes later in the month with "The Nun". "The Little Stranger" instead chooses to portray generational haunting and old-house theatrics with a calm that sinks into one's bones like the constant damp that permeates the exterior of the expansive manor. See this one before its yanked unceremoniously from theaters.






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Support the Girls
We the Animals
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