DVDs of the week

THE LITTLE STRANGER (CERT 12) £9.99

Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is summoned to Hundreds Hall, which is owned by physically and mentally scarred soldier Roderick Ayres (Will Poulter), who exhibits the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Roderick lives in the crumbling property with his downtrodden sister Caroline (Ruth Wilson), imperious mother Angela (Charlotte Rampling) and a housemaid, Betty (Liv Hill). The veteran is convinced that a dark force in the house means him harm. Faraday becomes a regular visitor and a dutiful companion to spinster Caroline. During a dinner party, a young guest is mauled by the family’s normally placid labrador and, soon after, Faraday discovers scrawl on a wall purportedly left by Angela’s dead daughter Susan (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland). The Little Stranger is an ambiguous thriller of simmering desires set inside a crumbling mansion in the aftermath of the Second World War. Adapted from Sarah Waters’ gothic novel, director Lenny Abrahamson’s picture conjures a mood of grim foreboding, enriched by Stephen Rennick’s haunting orchestral score that seems to anticipate the whispering breeze and creaking floorboards of a country pile that has seen far better days. It is an atmospheric and stylish portrait of dysfunctional family relationships and class warfare that builds tension gradually. Production design traps us inside Hundreds Hall with the characters, nervously looking at the edge of each frame for clues to the horror that lurks beneath the building’s dilapidated facade. The true darkness of Abrahamson’s film lurks in the silences between emotionally damaged people.

DOGMAN (CERT 15) £9.99

Italian director Matteo Garrone won numerous plaudits for his gripping 2008 crime thriller Gomorra. He returns to this fertile territory in Dogman, a slow-burning character study about an animal lover, who is bullied into betraying his friends and neighbours. Marcello (Marcello Fonte) runs a dog-grooming business in Magliana, on the outskirts of Rome, and he deals cocaine on the side to earn extra money to treat his young daughter Alida (Alida Baldari Calabria). This small-scale life of crime introduces Marcello to local thug Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce), who steals from unsuspecting victims in the neighbourhood and sometimes involves Marcello for a small cut of the ill-gotten gains. Everyone in Magliana is terrified of Simoncino, including Marcello, whose shop is situated next door to a jewellery business run by Franco (Adamo Dionisi). Simoncino decides to rob this store by tunnelling through from Marcello’s premises. The thug forces him to give him his keys and, once the police discover that the thieves gained access to the jewellers from the dog-grooming salon, the finger of suspicion points at Marcello.