Welcome the Stranger

Weird, weird movie. I honestly liked the first half-very atmospheric, suspenseful and dark with minimal dialogue and a lot of unanswered questions.

But in the second half, instead of wrapping up lose ends by providing explanation, the creators seemed to think that I (and others) can read their minds. I can't. I have no idea what this movie is about. I'm definitely not against oddball artsy movies, but this one required a bit more worth with development and editing.

Although the acting is really good, with lots of subtlety, it never felt believable with the storyline. And it has the same weird, dark and dirty vibe as Neon Demon. In fact it feels like a prequel.

I wanted to like the movie but that didn't happen. Neither actress is very good at acting so they did little to add anything to the movie.

Alice (Abbey Lee Kershaw) arrives unannounced at her estranged brother Ethan (Caleb Landry Jones)'s mansion. He reluctantly allows her to stay overnight. The siblings have a mysterious mommy issue with their late mother. Ethan's girlfriend Misty (Riley Keough) arrives.

"Hey, stop acting weird.", Ethan tells Alice in front of Misty. That's what I want to say to this movie. Writer/director Justin Kelly is trying really hard to be arthouse worthy with close-ups, mumblecore, a portal to nowhere, and a strange psychosexual mystery. It's trying too hard and being too weird. Abbey Lee has the haunted emaciated look of a supermodel. Caleb looks like a creepy serial killer. They're acting strange for the sake of the movie. It's play acting. It could still be saved by an amazing ending to wrap it up. Instead, it does the amateur move and does it without the kinetic energy to drive it home. This is a slow, long tease to a hollow ending and doesn't explain some of the more weird elements.

I do like a lot of strange films but his is just the worst. Far too pretentious and deep without even trying to explain itself.

A good waste of 90 minutes.

Maybe an epilogue to explain it would help as the film doesnt.

Welcome the Stranger does not have mass commercial appeal. It's a very loose, uncomfortable film that, depending on how you understand the resolution, can be open to a WIDE range of interpretations. Only the very last scene is presented as something beyond superficial question. Everything else is ultimately to be analyzed in relation to this last scene. Most viewers don't want to analyze, which is fine, but their not liking this movie is not equivalent to its being pretentious.