THE LITTLE STRANGER
This Ole House
Step into a spooksome country mansion as Sarah Waters’s gothic chiller comes to the screen.
released 21 september 12a | 111 minutes Director lenny abrahamson Cast domhnall Gleeson, ruth Wilson, Charlotte rampling, Will poulter
From one room to a whole house, as Lenny Abrahamson follows up his acclaimed Oscar-nominated drama with this tightly wound adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2009 gothic novel. Room (2015) dealt with a mother and a daughter in captivity; this latest effort is similarly a tale of a family pushed to extremes.
Set in 1948, in rural England, the story is narrated by one Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), a respected medic who’s lived in the local village since he was a boy. It begins as Faraday is called to Hundreds Hall, owned by the Ayres family, to attend to their sick maid Betty (Liv Hill).
Shocked by its run-down condition, he first meets male heir Roderick Ayers (Will Poulter), a World War Two veteran with traumatic facial scarring and a leg injury. He’s also introduced to Rod’s sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson) and their mother (Charlotte Rampling). Caroline soon asks if he’d consider treating Rod for his painful injuries.
For Faraday, it’s a chance to revisit the once-beautiful home where his mother worked as a maid and where, as a young boy, he attended a lavish party (even vandalising part of the décor, much to his mother’s shame). On the very same day, he glimpsed Caroline’s older sister Susan, the family’s shining light, who then took ill and died. It’s here that the story begins to get creepy, as we’re teased with the idea that Susan’s malevolent spirit may still be in residence.
At a social gathering at Hundreds Hall, attended by Faraday, the young daughter of one of the guests disappears behind the drawing room curtains only to be savaged by Gyp, the Ayres’s dog. Rod – who drinks too much – is convinced that there’s “something evil in this house” that’s out to get him. Is it Susan? A bunch of “S” marks carved into the window frame near where Gyp carried out his attack are found, and the same scratches also appear in the wardrobe belonging to Mrs Ayres…
By now, most directors would be rattling chains and cranking up the moans and wails in the sound mix. Abrahamson is more subtle than that, even if the house does skate close to that age-old cliché of being a “character” in the film. Rather, inspired by Henry James’s novella The Turn Of The Screw, this is a slow-boil psychological drama about a fragmented family fraying at the seams.
From wartime post-traumatic stress disorder to the impact of losing a child, Waters’ story and the screenplay by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) paint a convincing portrait of mental breakdown. There are, of course, unsettling moments – the servants’ bells in the kitchen ringing uncontrollably; mysterious breathing heard in the nursery
This is a slow-boil psychological drama about a family
– but this isn’t one of those ghost stories that’s designed to terrorise. Rather, it wants to send an icy chill creeping down your spine.
Reuniting with Abrahamson after their time together on Frank (2014), a moustachioed Gleeson is excellent; it’s one of his most mature performances to date, with the actor completely in control of the character at all times. By comparison, Poulter, who previously co-starred with Gleeson in The Revenant, rather suffers under heavy prosthetics, with his pronounced limp drawing attention to itself, almost entirely at odds with the rest of the production and its subtleties. Rampling delivers her usual autopilot ice-cool turn, while Ruth Wilson never quite convinces as the unpredictable Caroline, who’s initially drawn to Faraday as romance gently simmers between them. That love never quite boils over. Those expecting something akin to
The Handmaiden (2016), Park Chan-wook’s highly erotic take on Waters’ 2002 tale Fingersmith, may be left disappointed.
Whether The Little Stranger truly surprises and shocks is debatable. It’s skillfully made, well-acted and tastefully shot and designed (by Ole Bratt Birkeland and Simon Elliott respectively). But it never quite musters the emotional impact of Abrahamson’s
Room; nor is it truly scary enough to satisfy those looking for a genuine fright night. And yet, as a story where souls are tormented by their past, it still intrigues to the final moments, leaving you scratching your head all the way into the end credits.
Filming for the house took place at Langleybury, near Watford and (for the 1919 party scenes) Newby Hall, near Ripon.