Lenny Abrahamson was adamant that he wouldn’t adapt another novel after directing Room.
But the Academy Award nominated director soon discovered that once the right story sinks its teeth into the right director’s consciousness, they will stop at nothing to get that film made.
Even before “Room,” Abrahamson had registered his ambition to make “The Little Stranger,” which revolves around country doctor Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) tending to war veteran Roderick Ayres (Will Poulter) at the previously illustrious Hundreds Hall, which has since fallen into decline.
Despite the best efforts of matriarch Angela (Charlotte Rampling) and daughter Caroline (Ruth Wilson), the same could also be said of the rest of the Ayres family. Yet, even though their issues are obvious, Faraday still finds himself attracted to the family and the Hall.
Unfortunately for Abrahamson, having only overseen some indie Irish films, he was never quite in the position to make “The Little Stranger.”
“Room’s” success and its 4 Oscar nominations gave him some power, though, which he leveraged to adapt Sarah Walters’ 2009 gothic novel, the film version of which, Abrahamson recently insisted to me, is a ghost story rather than a horror film.
Here’s what else he had to say on the chilling “The Little Stranger.”
What first attracted you to “The Little Stranger”?
I loved the book. I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t get it out of my head. The funny thing was, I had been working with it on Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood, the producers, and Ed Guiney, this producer I work with all the time, and Lucinda Coxon, an excellent writer, but I had sort of felt like while making “Room” I shouldn’t do an adaptation of another novel. But i just couldn’t get it out of my head. It is such an unusual piece of work. It mixes a ghost story with rich character drama. It reminded me of Henry James and those old late era really rich ghost stories. I also loved the technical challenge of flirting with genre but not quite going there. That appealed to me. As did the difficulty of making it. I also just found it really moving. The characters are all struggling with the longings that can’t be fulfilled. Even Farraday, who is quite a tricky character, because he is cold and reserved in that mid-century British way. But at the same time I felt for him. I felt this kind of unfulfilled need in him that redeems him as a character, which got under my skin so I just couldn’t say no to it.
This feels like a very different horror film compared to the usual entries to the genre.
It is hard to shake off the horror film label. But it is not a horror film. It is much more of a psychologically sinister kind of drama. It harks back to an earlier variety of movies. The horror genre has become turbo charged in recent years. It is like, ‘How far up to 11 can we turn this?’ And we go against that. It is much quieter than those movies. It is not full of jump scares. It uses those ideas to help you understand the characters. So like everything I have done it is about the people. And the scary stuff is scary because of what is going on in those characters. It is not some monster from outside. It is about what is inside those characters, and how that is reflected back out into the world in this rather disturbing way.
I understand what you’re saying, I feel like I saw a mini-backlash to Guillermo Del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” because audiences expect it to be a certain sort of horror film.
In terms of fandom and how it operates now, we are all aware of how toxic it can be. But somehow, and it is related to other things that are going on politically at the moment, there’s that kind of sense of mob rule by aficionados. It is because we have all been turned into consumers. So when we go and watch a movie, it is like, ‘This is what I signed up for. I want it to deliver the following things.’ I think, ‘Maybe it is better if it delivers something that you don’t expect.’ I think there will be some kind of horror fans that go, ‘This is not what I wanted.’ But that’s OK. It is not trying to do that. It is trying to do something else. I think any audience that goes in with a more open mind will get something really rich from the film. But if you go in waiting for the jump scares it won’t be what you are expecting.
Do you believe in the supernatural?
No, I am not interested in that stuff at all. I am a complete sketic. I don’t believe in any such thing. I love the story, though. I have always loved atmospheric filmmaking. Even after making the film I am still as skeptical as I was before. But I think the reason why people are drawn to those stories is interesting. Because I think they address and express fears that we all have and are rooted. The impulse towards telling those stories is a really deep one and a rich one. But I don’t watch ‘Paranormal Activity’ or ‘Ghosthunters’ or read click bait about the weirdest things ever caught on Google Earth.
“The Little Stranger” is released on August 31st.
