The Little Stranger (2018)

Dr. Faraday has intense memories of the grand Hundreds Hall as a child and finds himself returning as an adult to treat their fearful maid. As he befriends the Ayres family that includes Roderick, Caroline, and their mother Angela, weird and violent events start happening in their now dilapidated house.

The Little Stranger is an atmospheric film adaptation of Sarah Water's unconventional haunted house novel. Much of the film is well done, especially in the visuals, the performances and characters, the placement and intensity of the violent events, and the implications of the ending. The cinematography is beautiful with muted, dreary tones for the present and bright, colorful hues for the past. This is through Faraday's eyes because he idealizes the past. Hundreds Hall used to be a magnificent house with intricate moldings, fresh flowers on every floor, and home to the most exclusive parties. The home is owned by the Ayres family, part of the upper echelons of society even when the house has fallen into disrepair as a result of their fortune running out. Now, Hundreds is a ghost of its former glory with four people living in the massive structure, struggling to keep things running.

The characters feel authentic due to the superb writing and acting. Faraday is a restrained man stuck in between the levels of society. He grew up poor as a shopkeeper and nanny's son, only invited to the one party at Hundreds because his mother used to work there. That place is everything he ever wanted but can never have as someone born lower class. As an adult, he's known as a decent doctor and seems to be rather well off, but still doesn't fit in as the Ayres do despite their differing fortune. People still treat him as if he doesn't belong. The Ayres do belong, but the situation isn't good for them either. They hold on to the monstrosity of a house because of tradition even as it molders aroudn them. Roderick has control of the property and their money because of society's expectations even though he clearly isn't competent to do so. The matriarch Angela would rather suffer with mental illness rather than see a psychologist and bring further shame to her family. Both parties suffer in their roles imposed by society.

The horror elements are few and far between, but they are masterfully done. The rest of the film kind of lulls you into a false sense of security so when these moments come up, they are jarring, almost always violent, and graphic. The first scene of this nature is when the Ayres have a party and Caroline's old, docile lab mauls the face of a little girl. I was shocked at its graphic nature and the tragic ramifications for the girl, the dog, and the Ayres. The only non-violent incident is the wardrobe suddenly full of childishly scrawled S's, which solidifies Angela's will to stay in the house thinking it's the spirit of her dead daughter. The rest of the scenes are memorable, artfully filmed, and somber.

** here there be spoilers **

The ending has interesting implications. Faraday starts out the movie as a decent man. He befriends struggling neighbors and has either a pleasant friendship or awkward courtship with Caroline. Later in the film, he becomes extremely possessive, stooping to forcing Caroline's consent to marriage on the evening of her mother's funeral. It's a disgusting scene that automatically made me hate him. Days later, Caroline doesn't want to get married at all, sold the house, and plans to move away to Canada or America to start over. He refuses to accept it but still leaves. For him, Caroline becomes synonymous with the house. They both represent his longing for success, acceptance in high society, happiness, and love. However, equating a house with a woman gives his possessive view a misogynistic slant. The cause of all the Ayre family problems turns out to be an imprint of Faraday as a child. That scene is shown so many times in the film: his longing overcoming him so that he snaps an acorn from some molding on the wall and his mother humiliates him in front of Angela's daughter Sukey. The shame, anger, and wanting in that moment created a sort of poltergeist that terrorized the family their whole lives.

I have mixed thoughts about the ending. On one hand, it shows how toxic the hierarchy of society is to all involved. On the other hand, three people are now dead because a little boy didn't get his way. In terms of class, I think it's well done. It also portrays the destructive force of toxic masculinity when entitled men don't get their way. I hate that Faraday essentially wins in the end even though he's no better for it. The nail in the coffin for me was when he testified in court that Caroline's death must have been suicide due to her "mental instability" when she rejected him. It's unclear whether he truly believes this or if he's knows he's lying. I supposed I could believe a man thinking a woman is insane for not wanting him. The film could also be interpreted as adult Faraday murdering Caroline and then securing his innocence by lying, but that wouldn't explain any of the other phenomena.

The Little Stranger is as restrained a film as Faraday is a character. The supernatural and violent elements seem extreme in comparison, matching the extremes in visuals. There is a lot of development and quiet moments in between, so it takes a little patience and care about the characters to  Although I have mixed feelings about the ending, the film in undeniably well made and acted. Charlotte Rampling as Angela is an iron matriarch through everything. Domhnall Gleeson as Faraday holds up the bulk of the film and makes everything believable in a subtle way. Although I found the ending a bit controversial, The Little Stranger is worth your time.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

The Houses October Built

* spoilers *

Bobby, Zack, Jeff, Mikey, and Brandy are on a quest to find the most extreme and obscure haunted houses. They are tired of the sugar coated amusement park crap and want something more. Together they embark on five day road trip across the South in their RV to backwater haunted houses with dubious legality. With their winning personalities and disregard for other people, they piss off a few of the haunts in their wake, leading to some tense and dangerous situations. One such haunt seems to be following them wherever they go, no matter how far away. Are they regular people just angry at them? Are they criminals or something more supernatural? The group also stumbles across the most extreme of haunts called Blue Skeleton that needs clandestine meetings and secret passwords. Will it be what they're looking for or will it prove too dangerous?

In the past, I was never a fan of haunted houses and horror mazes because I've always been high strung. In the past few years, I finally went to various theme park Halloween events and had a blast. The characters in the film are tired of these events and want something more. I enjoyed the documentary type segments where they question scare actors, fans of these events, and creators of haunted houses. Their quest begs the question where should the line be drawn? There can only be so much done and guarantee the safety of the guest. The faux documentary explores a little of what people do to make their haunts more extreme: employ actual psychopaths and criminals, allow the guests to be attacked, use of actual body parts, and even the accidental inclusion of actual death. I can see signs of this in the real world, especially in the attractions Blackout and McKamey Manor where guests sign away their rights and are then manhandled, waterboarded, tied up, and sexually assaulted. I think this film is an answer to this growing trend.

The narrative story of the film is equally interesting to the documentary bits. The style is found footage, which I don't have a problem with when done well. The main source is the group's cameras as they film their trek, but also other people's cameras, security cameras, and the like. I enjoyed the videos through all the different haunts. It starts off fairly standard with mainly jump scares which you can see in any walk through a horror maze., Then it builds suspense in the rest of the film and really creates an atmosphere of dread. The later haunts, although not horrible, lose the air of fun and become more alarming. All is fun and games until the first haunt and then a clown wouldn't move from the front of the car, just staring menacingly. Then the creepy porcelein doll girl followed them over a hundred miles to freak them out with her maniacal laughter and it escalates from there. One of the best scenes of the film is when the whole troupe of scare actors stood in front of their RV in the middle of the night after scaring the friends awake and then suddenly disappeared. The very end with the last haunt is taut with tension and I was on the edge of my seat.

Unfortunately, the film falters in a few places. The characters are fine, but make some dumb decisions and are unlikeable at times. The guys are very bro-like and macho. They cause trouble for no reason at all or maybe just for their own amusement. Brandy seems totally against the entire endeavor and doesn't seem to even enjoy haunts. It begs the question why she's even there except to have a stereotypical screaming, hysterical girl. The very ending is so very disappointing. I get that the filmmakers wanted it to be vague and up to interpretation, but it seemed more like a copout. You never really know if the characters die at the end. I don't think they did, but the ending would be pretty anticlimactic if they were shown to survive. The Blue Skeleton haunt isn't completely unknown, so it is doubtful at best that they could succeed in murdering people every single year.

The Houses October Built is a well constructed film that builds tension and suspense right up until the end. The makeup is impressive, especially when contrasting the very real looking Blue Skeleton scare actors' makeup with all the others that are more typical and slap-dash. Even with my problems with it, I had a great time watching it. The feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach when I watched it is more important than the small details. This is a perfect movie to watch for Halloween and I will put it in my yearly October watch list along with Halloween and Trick 'r Treat.

My rating: 8/10 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: An English Ghost Story

The dysfunctional Naremore family wants a fresh new start, so they buy a quaint house called the Hollow in the country. This house used to be owned by a children's author whose books focused on a scrappy little girl, her ghost friends, and their home (a fictionalized version of her own home). The family rapidly realizes that the ghosts are real and the Hollow has a charming sort of magic. Everyone is suddenly getting along. All the problems of the past seem to melt away. Around every corner is something charming, inexplicable, and theirs alone. The Hollow is paradise and just what everyone needs. The novelty eventually wears off and old problems start coming back. All of the family members are suddenly at war with each other and the ghosts respond in kind. The charming magic of the Hollow is gone, replaced by menace as the ghosts pit the members against each other. The family is headed towards total destruction with the ghosts poking and prodding to get them there.

An English Ghost Story is kind of a bland and nondescript title, so I didn't really know what to expect. It doesn't disappoint. Kim Newman writes beautifully. The first third of the book introduces the characters and shows their idyllic existence when they first move into the Hollow. The family starts to heal, putting aside their petty differences and coming together. I love how instead of crazy infodumping information about the family and their background, it was seamlessly integrated into the text without interrupting the story. I also grew to care for the family as their pasts were fleshed out piece by piece to compare to their present selves. I am frankly jealous of their house. The chest of drawers with Mary Poppins-esque magic is my favorite object. The ghosts revealed themselves to each family member in an endearing and entertaining way. The house seemed to embrace them while they got along, but this didn't last. The old conflicts eventually resurfaced, causing the ghosts to help each member in their ultimate goal: to come out victorious.

My problem with the novel starts when the family begins to turn on each other. Each member of the Naremore family becomes obsessed with one thing or another. The father Steven becomes obsessed with dominating his household with an iron fist. The women must serve him hand and foot and follow him without question. He becomes more and more abusive as the novel goes on, eventually coming to blows with his daughter Jordan. The son Tim becomes more and more entrenched in his army fantasy where he alone protects the house from intruders and their attacks. He also turns his sights on Jordan as a perpetrator. The men of the house exhibit extreme, stereotypically masculine behavior and target the women of the house to subjugate. I was hoping these tropes would be subverted in some way, but the change to back to normal is very abrupt. They don't seem to even process what was wrong or why they did things.

The women go through a similar change. The mother Kirsty rails against her family and their life, insisting that her life with Vron, her best friend who she left behind, would be better. She looks back on her past failures and only sees her family getting in her way. Then she resolves to be rid of them. This reaction in Kirsty is more shocking because mothers tend to be more nurturing, but I just don't buy it. It's based on a very tired stereotype about women and I feel it would have been just as shocking to hear out of Steven. She does successfully rid herself of Tim at one point, but it seems to only serve to make her the meek, subservient wife that Steven wants because her ambition led to what she thought was her child's death. Jordan collapses inward and becomes anorexic after breaking up with her boyfriend. She becomes a shadow of herself, but then suddenly realizes that she looks just fine and ceases to be anorexic. This angered me because people go to therapy and work on their body dysmorphia for years to overcome eating disorders. To have it come and go so swiftly points to a lack of understanding and another stereotypical female reaction to rejection.

This brings me to Vron, Kirsty's mysterious best friend. Everyone calls her a witch ad her friendships are deemed toxic. It isn't ever really explained why or how, just simply understood. I immediately doubt their word because the circumstances seem suspicious and characters are notoriously unreliable. It seemed to me that one of the big reasons they moved there was because Steven hated Vron and wanted to isolate Kirsty from her friend. This just shows that Steven was a patriarchal husband even before the ghosts got a hold of him. The whole situation just rubbed me the wrong way and smacked of impending abuse. Then Vron actually arrives on the scene and she seems like a maniac. The ghosts protect the house from her and she eventually goes away. I expected so much more from Vron and it was disappointing to see her reduced to a creepy, one dimensional villain. She could have been so much more.

An English Ghost Story is a slow burning haunted house novel with an eerie atmosphere and lyrical writing. My problems stemmed from the characters, their stereotypical transformations, and the lack of a resolution. The ending has the family too frightened to even disagree with each other for fear of angering the ghosts. What kind of life is that? Never truly resolving conflicts or having yourself be heard is just frustrating and awful. The ending left me less than satisfied.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins