See Exclusive 'The Little Stranger' Photos

Domhnall Gleeson (left) stars as “Dr. Faraday” and Ruth Wilson (right) stars as “Caroline Ayres” in director Lenny Abrahamson’s THE LITTLE
STRANGER, a Focus Features release. Credit: Nicole Dove / Focus Features

The son of a housemaid works very hard, becomes a doctor and builds a very responsible life in the country. One day in the summer of 1948, he is called to attend to a patient in Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. In the years that have passed, however, the home has become very inhospitable to its current inhabitants.

Mother, son and daughter are haunted by something far more ominous than the declining house and their own dying way of life. The Little Stranger, based on a novel by Sarah Waters, examines how the family's story becomes entwined with the visiting doctor's life to a disturbing extent.

Ahead of the first trailer for The Little Stranger, which will arrive next Monday, our exclusive images help paint the picture of the house, the doctor and the haunted family. Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson and Charlotte Rampling star. Lenny Abrahamson, who directed Brie Larson to her Academy Award-winning performance in Room, answered several questions that have been raised about the new film.

Why did you select this genre/story as your follow-up to Room?

I was thinking about at the same time I was working on Room. I’d read the novel a couple of years before and loved it, couldn’t get it out of my head. There were lots of possibilities after the success of Room but I’d always wanted to do The Little Stranger next and nothing changed. The character of Faraday is unique, complex, dark and at the same time sort of heart-breaking and the challenge of bringing all of that to screen was probably the biggest draw - as well as trying to understand and to choreograph this really unconventional relationship between him and Caroline.

How does this film separate itself from other supernatural thrillers? What’s different about it?

I don’t think the film we’ve made is quite like anything else I’ve seen. There are plenty of genre elements in the mix but it never lets you settle into a familiar thriller or horror pattern; it keeps interrupting the genre tropes. As a filmmaker, moving in and out of those patterns in order to do something rich, psychological, human, was the most exhilarating thing.

What do you think will surprise audiences the most when it comes to the movie?

I hope it’s that they are moved by a film that you might expect to exist just for the thrill of the ride. There are lots of things you don’t see coming, but maybe this emotional connection to the characters, and the particular way it grows is the most surprising.

For those who love the novel, is this a true adaptation or did you change some things?

It’s a very true adaptation. There are changes of course, but of the three book adaptations I’ve made this is the closest to the original.

What’s your favorite moment in this first trailer?

Domhnall’s performance is superb, and he is well threaded through the trailer, and then, close to the end, there's a shot of Charlotte Rampling and Ruth Wilson, as mother and daughter, looking just past camera. The shot captures how odd their characters are, and how brilliantly they played them.

Check out the images here. The Little Stranger will open in theaters everywhere on August 31, 2018.

Charlotte Rampling stars as “Mrs. Ayres” in director Lenny Abrahamson’s THE LITTLE STRANGER, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Nicole Dove / Focus Features

Domhnall Gleeson stars as “Dr. Faraday” in director Lenny Abrahamson’s THE LITTLE STRANGER, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Nicole Dove / Focus Features

Oliver Zetterstrom (left) stars as “Young Faraday” in director Lenny Abrahamson’s THE LITTLE STRANGER, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Nicole Dove / Focus Features