The Stranger

I was initially lured to watching the 2022 horror movie "The Stranger" given the movie's somewhat interesting cover. I had never heard about this movie prior to watching it, so I didn't know what I was in for, so writers and directors Mike Clarke and Paul Gerrard had every opportunity to bedazzle and impress me.

The storyline in "The Stranger", as written by Mike Clarke and Paul Gerrard, started out okay, but about halfway through the 79 minutes, the movie started to lose its momentum and sort of went into a standstill of sorts. Sure, "The Stranger" was watchable, but it was hardly an outstanding, memorable or particularly scary horror experience.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "The Stranger", but the actors and actresses put on fairly adequate performances, given the scope of the contents of script and storyline. It is a relatively small cast ensemble, with the majority of the movie just revolving around Damien Ashley (playing Kyle), Jennifer K. Preston (playing Amanda) and Isabella Percival (playing Karli).

Visually then "The Stranger" is a low-key movie. There wasn't much of any special effects being used throughout the course of the 79 minutes that the movie ran for. Not that the movie really needed special effects, as it wasn't such a movie.

Watchable for what it was, "The Stranger" came and went without leaving a lasting impression on me. The best thing about "The Stranger", actually, was the cover. "The Stranger" offers nothing that haven't already been done or seen in many other home-invasion movies before it. And it was sort of anti-climatic that you never get to know what those darkened human-like creatures actually were.

My rating of "The Stranger" from writers and directors Mike Clarke and Paul Gerrard lands on a four out of ten stars.

It what is says on the tin, a stranger turns up at an inn - something untoward about him, but is he the real concern.....oooooh no!

I watched this with some friends last night because it was only £1 on Apple TV (complete bargain!) and we sat back thinking - 'ok, this is going to be a laugh; independent unheard of British horror...FOR A £1?! Surely it's going to be Oscar worthy!

All jokes aside, I have seen a lot of budget horror's in my time (for the love of god, 'Zombie Hunter' anyone ....yeah) but with this being classed as a budget horror, we were all presently surprised.

Some nice camera work, very desolate and isolated location, a few decent jump scares and the acting was quite good all round. Not going to be beating Halloween or anything but we enjoyed it!

Worth 80 minutes of your time :)

That genre being - tiny budget, single location, handful of actors - horror.

Think Hellraiser and A Dark Song and X, on a shoestring.

It's a first time full feature - though Mike and Paul have been around awhile.

And if you take that into account the flaws can be excused.

The acting, it's not quite there, but it's generally prett good. A little more experience, whether from them, or the directors, or the script, and you can see it could have been great.

Effects, not much obvious, the few clear examples are more about turning the concepts into costume/makeup - and that was well done.

Originally titled Karli, the name change was a good idea, until another film came out with the same name last year!

Nicely leaves things open for a prequel and sequel(s).

The Hunters are coming...

Full disclosure, I've known one of the directors for a number of years.

The concept could have been a lot more interesting if we got more details about what's going on. Like who are the mysterious things chasing the man? I wish he would have developed theories or learned little details, and ideas about them as he was on the run. We don't learn much about them, just that they develop an interest in people and hunt them down. We have no idea why either.

Like it wasn't a terrible film, but it also didn't leave much of an impression on me either. I'll probably forget I watched it. The acting was very average, nothing special, but the dialogue was really awkward in places.

This seems to be a concept movie from a new studio/director. And so must be taken with a pinch of salt, it's not a 10 by a some way, but not a 1 either.

Story - there isn't one. The opening scene draws you in thinking oh what's happened, seems daft but let's see. But by the end I'm still scratching my head on what the story was. It has the old classic family member dies, let's move to a remote country house with no neighbours.

Acting - on the whole is mediocre, but the script can be blamed for that. Some really awful conversations between mother and daughter including one near the beginning. Mother asks daughter to look out for signs as she is driving. They are on a single track driveway to the property, your not going to be looking out for signs. This is just one example of a number of poorly written exchanges. But there are points where it improves sligtly.

Music - usuall suspense horror music, with the annoying tones when something is about to happen. But acceptable.

Overall - I'm not going to watch this one again, it's longer than it needs to be but there is some good concepts. Probably should be lower in my ratings but suggest giving it a go anyway.