| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Domhnall Gleeson | ... | Dr. Faraday | |
| Will Poulter | ... | Roderick Ayres | |
| Ruth Wilson | ... | Caroline Ayres | |
| Liv Hill | ... | Betty | |
| Charlotte Rampling | ... | Mrs. Ayres | |
| Oliver Zetterström | ... | Young Faraday (as Oliver Zetterstrom) | |
| Kathryn O'Reilly | ... | Elizabeth Faraday | |
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Eddie Toll | ... | Faraday's Father |
| Camilla Arfwedson | ... | Young Mrs Ayres | |
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Tipper Seifert-Cleveland | ... | Susan Ayres |
| Peter Ormond | ... | Colonel Ayres | |
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Bailey Rogers | ... | Young Boy at Fete |
| Richard Campbell | ... | Photographer | |
| Harry Hadden-Paton | ... | Dr. Granger | |
| Anna Madeley | ... | Anne Granger | |
THE LITTLE STRANGER tells the story of Dr. Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants - mother, son and daughter - are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family's story is about to become entwined with his own. Written by Focus Features
What can you say about a film that feels hours longer than it actually is? One thing I would declare without apology is that it better have a powerful resolution. In other words, a film that feels so arduous to get through better be that way for a good reason. Because if it doesn't have a solid payoff, then what was the point of making the audience sit through endless stretches of nothingness? That's what is done here too often.
A film that is sluggish, dour and interminable is not going to get much recognition for anything, even if the cast does a decent job. Here, Domhnall Gleeson is a British doctor who comes to an old estate owned by a wealthy aristocratic family, one that he came to know as a child. Gleeson does his best with the sandpaper-dry screenplay, but his efforts are for naught. Director Lenny Abrahamson appears to have taken too deliberate an approach. There's nothing wrong with a film relying on subtle horror, as this is based on a novel. The problem is, a big chunk of the film is so sedate that one will either be starved for interest by the time things pick up or will just plain want the film to end as I did. The film's lethargy made me check the time, something I never do anymore. It simply took too long for anything to happen here.
Notwithstanding my respect for the talent involved in this film, I decline to recommend it as it had me begging for the closing credits to run. An ending to a film has rarely felt so far away as it did here.