Loosetooth Reviews: The Little Stranger (2018)

Back in 2015 Lenny Abrahamson’s film Room starring Brie Larson was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, up against the likes of The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road and winner Spotlight. It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress with Larson taking home the gold.

While Abramson had been making a name for himself pre-Room with movies like What Richard Did and Frank, anything post-Room was sure to garner some attention…or so you would have thought, but The Little Stranger seems to have come from nowhere with little in way of fanfare.

The Little Stranger, based on the book by Sarah Waters, follows a country doctor named Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) who returns to practice in the area he grew up in, and takes an appointment at a dilapidated stately home. A home is mother once worked in, and a house he was fascinated by as a child.

There he becomes involved with the family, treating the states heir Roderick Ayes, a former air force captain badly burned in the line of duty, and befriending his sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson). While Faraday attends a small gathering at the house, Roderick refuses to leave his room insisting that something bad will happen. Later that evening the daughter of one of the guests is savaged by the previously docile family dog.

While this is chalked up to a coincidence, other such occurrences sporadically happen but are all explained away by Faraday, although the Ayres family become less and less convinced. The whole film plays out like a period drama rather than a ghost story, with every moment of the supernatural left to interpretation by the audience, and even by the time the credits role you’re not entirely sure whether there was anything unnatural at all.

The most outstanding thing about The Little Stranger is Will Poulter’s performance as the disfigured Ayers, obviously make-up is a major contributor to Roderick’s appearance but Poulter brings a great physicality to the performance, this coupled with is upper-class accent lead to an excellent supporting character, one that is likely to be over looked by the time the Oscars roll back around, but is equally deserving of the accolade.

Poulter is one of those young actors who’ve amassed a solid body of work, but have never quite received the acclaim that should rightfully be theirs. While Bill Skarsgård gave an excellent performance in last year’s adaptation of IT it would have been just as interesting to see what Poulter, who originally bagged the role, would have done with Pennywise. In a another universe maybe.

Have you seen The Little Stranger? How does it compare to Abrahamson’s other movies? Let me know in the comments below