The Little Stranger

Dublin's own Lenny Abrahamson is turning into a bit of a national treasure. In the space of  6 films (plus TV and shorts) he's become a director who you miss out on at your peril. Adam & Paul was a tragi-comedy masterpiece that showed us the human face of Dublin's heroin scourge. Garage was a stunning look at the effects of rural isolation. What Richard Did was a damning indictment of how privilege protects. Frank was a quirky but very watchable look at mental illness and the Room was an intensely gripping look at the damage and ripple effects caused by male violence. Now along comes The Little Stranger and we get to see Lenny's take on a genre picture with a story adapted from Sarah Water's novel of the same name.

In the year of our lord 1948 a doctor called Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) gets called to a country estate by the name of Hundreds Hall to attend to the new house maid who claims to be in pain. Here he meets the Ayres family. The elderly matriarch Angela who clings to her memories (Charlotte Rampling), son Roddy (Will Poulter) an RAF veteran of World War 2 who was disfigured in a crash and daughter Caroline (Ruth Wilson) who has returned home to help her brother run the estate. Faraday is intrigued by the family and soon finds himself spending a lot of time with them.

I'm not sure what I'd call this film. It's not horror but it's more than a drama. A psychological drama with creepy undertones? Ya, i think that would cover the bases. The other thing I'd call it is a right good watch. It's up there the best films Lenny has made and I've a feeling it's a story that will grow and grow with repeated viewings especially when you know the ending and can keep an eye out for things. It's subtle stuff which is welcome in an era when other chillers like The Nun are happy to beat you around the head for 90 minutes. It's always a good sign when a film can creep you out during daytime scenes when nothing is happening. When you get that insidious rumbling of dread and that goosebumpy feeling for reasons you can't quite discern. It's something that will stay in your head. But the downside is it might be too sedate for some. Don't go into this expecting a Conjuring film cos you ain't going to get it.

It's an ambiguous watch. You're never quite sure whats's to blame for the onscreen goings on and Abrahamson and writer Lucinda Coxon use the story and the trappings of the genre to comment on things like the class systems, the psychological effects of isolation and of living in the past, toxic masculinity, PTSD, repression and the damage jealousy caan do to a psyche. Scary movies have always been looked down upon but the people who scoff always manage to miss the bucket load of subtext crammed into the best of them. The ending of the film answers some questions but not all of them ensuring you have something to ruminate on afterwards. Did he? Who was "you"?  The acorn caused it??

The performances are top of the range all round. Everyone acting in that clipped, emotionally distant manner so beloved of post war Britain until circumstance and barely contained repression cause them to lash out. Domhnall Gleeson is as good as he's ever been as the doctor who's genteel exterior and pleasant bedside manner hides a rather dark want. Ruth Wilson as Caroline is excellent as a woman who knows she's given up on any chance of a happy life to look after her brother. The sadness behind her smiles plain to see but at the same time a delighted dance between her and friend provides the film with a sliver of much needed joy. Will Poulter puts in a fine showing as a man ruined by war but sadly he's absent for most of the film. I wish we'd got to see more of him because he's turned into such an interesting character. From the little bastard in Son Of Rambow to Detroit to this. This trio and a fine showing from Charlotte Rampling all help ground the film in it's later moments and keep us interested in it's smore intospective ones.

Go see this if you're sick of the bombast of modern day horror, if you long for something more sedate, a bit more elegant than your usual chillers. Go see it if you want to enjoy an Irish actor and an Irish director operating at the top of their game. Go see it if you just want something different. It's worth it.