by Frank Calvillo
Anyone considered a filmmaking prodigy by both Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino has a lot to live up to. When two of the most influential names in modern moviemaking single a young filmmaker out as a revolutionary voice in the field, the pressure is instantly on to deliver. Such is the case with Chilean filmmaker Guillermo Amoedo, whose previous film, Aftershock, proved to be one of the most thrilling foreign films of recent years, showing that Roth and Tarantino indeed knew how to back a winner.
As Amoedo’s follow-up The Stranger shows, however, even winners can sometimes fumble.
Boasting a highly intriguing plot, The Stranger tells the dark story of Martin (Cristobal Tapia Montt), who arrives in a remote city searching for his estranged wife Ana (Lorenza Izzo) with whom he shares a dark secret. Within their veins lies a disease that gives off an uncontrollable hunger for human blood. When Martin discovers that Ana has been dead for years, however, he makes up his mind to leave until he is pulled into an act of violence which sets off a deadly chain of events in this otherwise quiet town.
It’s hard to list all the various aspects of The Stranger which simply don’t work. Suffice it to say that the film is an excellent example of how to turn an A+ script into a B- movie, with pacing in particular being one of the more glaring issues in this case. Numerous scenes go on for far longer than they should, such as the beating up scene of Peter (Nicolas Duran), which continuously puts the otherwise involving plot on hold and essentially diminishes any real chance at suspense. At the same time, however, there seem to be long stretches of The Stranger which play out the like the last five minutes of any standard thriller’s climax, but for an hour and a half.
What does work, however, ends up working very well. I thought it incredibly touching how Amoeda took the time to give his villain shades of humanity by having him go to any and all lengths to save his son, highlighting the film’s lovely undercurrent of the bond between fathers and sons.
Additionally, The Stranger features one of the best scores of any recent horror film. The lush music is sweeping and grandiose throughout and manages to elevate what’s happening on screen without any fear of overshadowing it.
Whether it was the nature of the material or if Amoeda just decided to just let his actors go to town with regards to emotions, the performances in The Stranger are all cartoonish in ways the script never calls for. Featuring an assortment of some of Chile’s most popular actors, there doesn’t seem to be any one person who stands out above the other. The lone exception to this seems to be Izzo as the doomed Ana who puts in some quiet depth and soul to her role.
The Stranger boasts the kind of plot that the best kinds of horror films are made of, yet its results, especially the tragically flat ending, are mostly dire.
The Package
Amoedo’s short film The Fourth Horseman is the bright spot of the disc’s extras and is really one of the more intriguing and engaging horror shorts of the last few years. If only the same sort of energy had carried over to the feature.
There’s also a short documentary on the creation of Chilewood, chronicling the emerging and impressive filmmaking scene in Chile, which is due in large part to the large career strides Amoedo has made.
The Lowdown
From a filmmaker billed as a new and exciting voice in the world of horror, The Stranger ends up being nothing more than an admirable misstep.
