The long-awaited film adaptation of Sarah Waters's horror novel The Little Stranger is on its way, with an Oscar-nominated director at the helm. Lenny Abrahamson (Room) is responsible for this unsettling film, set in a declining country house after the Second World War. Domhnall Gleeson (Peter Rabbit) plays country doctor Faraday, who is called to care for the inhabitants - Charlotte Rampling as the matriarch, Ruth Wilson as her daughter, and Will Poulter as the son physically and psychologically damaged by combat.
Faraday falls in love with the house, Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the house is hiding plenty of secrets and Faraday gets wrapped up in the family’s story. But family’s maladies are beyond his power to cure: they are haunted by a dying way of life, as well as something far more ominous.
The movie poster paints a chilling picture as a little girl in the background is seen seemingly interacting with a little boy in a painting. In the foreground the movie’s stars Wilson, Gleeson and Rampling are posing together with Wilson sat in a chair.
Having watched the film, Sarah Waters commented, “The moment The Little Stranger finished, I wanted to watch it again. The product of a perfect combination of things – genius direction, a great script, masterly acting, lush cinematography – it’s a complex, poignant, terrifically unsettling film. I couldn’t wish for a better adaptation of the novel.”
Waters' work, which is always historical, has been adapted extensively. Her Victorian tales of lovers caught up in criminal intrigue (Fingersmith) and music-hall capers (Tipping the Velvet) were very successful as BBC dramas, as was her post-war story The Night Watch. And Fingersmith, which provided Sally Hawkins' big break, then inspired a Korean adaptation, The Handmaiden, last year. The Little Stranger, however, will be the first time that Waters' work will have had a proper cinema outing in English.
The Little Stranger has been adapted for the big screen by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl). The film is produced by Gail Egan (The Constant Gardener), Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland) and Ed Guiney (Room).
The movie is due to be released in cinemas later this year. Meanwhile, a tie-in edition of The Little Stranger will be published by Virago on August 23. n
Source: telegraph.co.uk; entertainment-focus