Dr. Faraday has been summoned to Hundreds Hall, an old mansion suffering from decay and neglect, to attend its inhabitants. A young housemaid seems terrified and complains of mysterious pains. The Ayres family -- aging mother and two adult children -- exist more than live in the house, though they strive to maintain a facade of aristocratic normalcy. As Faraday attempts to aid them, frightening and bizarre incidents increasingly occur as we simultaneously learn about the history of these characters.
Though Gothic films are few and far between, The Little Stranger makes a powerful case for the genre's lasting allure. It's a slow-boiler to be sure, and until a little girl is attacked by her sweet dog I wasn't sure this movie was going to be scary at all. Instead, it sets itself up like Agatha Christie's Crooked House, and I expected it to essentially be a psychological mystery-thriller until a murderous, explosive ending. Not so.
Hundreds Hall is haunted, there can be no doubt about that. It carries unmistakable trappings of ghostly activity, from creaking footsteps in empty rooms to servant bells ringing and doors violently shutting and shaking. Interestingly, these could all be explained away by more or less practical means; that is, we don't actually see any ghosts, nor do things pop out from dark corners as they might in Crimson Peak or The Woman in Black. Here we instead have something closer to The Haunting, wherein each spooky event could be paranormal and just as easily a manifestation of the psychological.
In an age where The Haunting of Hill House becomes a fabulous Netflix series, it's amazing we haven't seen more films like this. It requires patience, dedication, and watchfulness; it requires your full attention. You have to think about what's happening and why, you have to tie together characters and backstories and vague hints at what's happening just beyond the frame. It also plays with your expectations, luring you in with long shots you examine for ghosts that aren't there before switching to extreme close shots in which the lead players drift in and out of focus.
I don't want to spoil much more, because the beauty of this film lies in teasing out all its little significances. Literary in the best way, the film's characters do not steal the show so much as its weighty themes about trauma, wealth, sanity, family, love, and loss. And while Domhnall Gleeson tends to play eccentric, impotent male characters, do not underestimate him here as the seemingly-benevolent doctor. My pet theory -- SPOILER ALERT -- is that he is in fact responsible for the fall of the house of Ush- oops, I mean Hundreds Hall. Earlier in the film he makes a strange reference to the fracturing of conscious and subconscious self. Considered along with the repeated image of his breaking off a piece of plaster on a mirror, I can't shake the idea that his identity has spawned the malevolent spirit in the house. Think less Fantastic Beasts and more Beloved.
And while the ending more or less inspired my theory, it also made me want to instantly watch the movie again to keep unraveling the mystery. Unfortunately, the film is too long and slow and disturbing to actually watch again immediately, and so I'll suffer the haunting memory of it in the meantime. Lenny Abrahamson, you clever bastard.
IMDb: The Little Stranger
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