THE LITTLE STRANGER

If you hadn't figured it out by now Lenny Abrahamson is something of a maverick; he also happens to be one of the finest directors alive today. From a Lenny Abrahamson film only one thing is certain and that's nothing is certain. If he's now making genre pictures they certainly won't be like other films in that particular genre. His latest film, "The Little Stranger" is a ghost story...but then it might not  be. Abrahamson himself has said he doesn't want his film 'sold' as a ghost story or as a horror film though it is indeed a very disturbing one.

The tropes of the ghost story are very much in evidence; a big pile of a country house, things that go bump in the night and bells that ring all by themselves. Then there's the child who has died, (we never learn how), before the film begins and the siblings who feel the dead child has upstaged them. The central character is the youngish doctor, (Domhnall Gleeson), called to the house at the beginning after the sole maid takes ill. While he's examining her she lets slip that her 'illness' may simply be fear. However, if you think you are in for some early 'frights', think again. As I said, Abrahamson doesn't make genre pictures that are in any way predictable. This movie has a very slow build that may not endear it to a mass audience. Nevertheless when the first signs that there may indeed be something wrong and not just in the imagination of the battle-scarred son and brother and the jumpy maid, do appear, about midway through, the feeling of dread is considerable.
This is a consummate piece of film-making, superbly adapted from the Sarah Waters novel by Lucinda Coxon, beautifully photographed and designed and, of course, brilliantly directed by Abrahamson. I think I guessed 'the twist' quite early on but then Abrahamson never quite explains things; he simply lets things happen and leaves it to his splendid cast to help us make up our own minds.
As the doctor Domhnall Gleeson is so buttoned-up he may as well be in a straight-jacket which, of course, he is in his way. As the spinsterish daughter he is drawn to Ruth Wilson is extraordinary but then when is Ruth Wilson not extraordinary and both Will Poulter as the mentally unstable, physically disfigured son and Charlotte Rampling as the much too quick to accept the supernatural explanation mother lend brilliant support. Indeed, every performance, no matter how small the part, is superb. Abrahamson may have said he doesn't want us to think of this as a ghost story but there are many different types of ghost stories and many different kinds of ghosts. Call this a genre picture if you like but it's one that's out there on its own. I loved it and I am sure it will haunt me for a long time to come.