The Little Stranger

In post-World War II England, a young doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) becomes embroiled in the lives of a once-proud family (Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, Charlotte Rampling) in the crumbling manor house he once visited as a child during its glory days. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Lucinda Coxon (from Sarah Waters’ novel), the movie is moody but slow-moving, low-key and unsatisfying, one of those movies that simply stops without notice. Neither a horror movie nor a ghost story, it’s just a lot of atmosphere and earnest acting looking in vain for a story. The movie invites comparison with Robert Wise’s classic The Haunting (1963), where the house itself was the evil spirit, but ultimately it falls flat. Despite this, Liv Hill does contribute some nice moments as the family’s timorous maid.