Director: Guillermo Amoedo
Starring: Cristobal Tapia Montt, Lorenza Izzo, Luis Gnecco and Ariel Levy.
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Certification: 18
A mysterious man called Martin (Cristobal Tapia Montt), arrives at a small town to eradicate a highly dangerous and contagious disease that makes people addicted to…blood! Not screaming to be a vampire film however, even without the fangs you can tell the characters have vamps in their veins. For Martin to destroy the disease spreading, he must kill his wife. In turn, this creates a huge bloodbath in the town.
You do have to be sceptical with these types of films that just love to show they have a well known figure backing their project up. Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino are very guilty of this – I will never get my money back from RZA’s Man With The Iron Fists for example. Its very ironic Eli Roth manages to have someone else’s film released when he himself has struggled to get an audience for The Green Inferno (yet, Hemlock Grove still exists?). Another problem I have with stapling a known name on a film, is that it implies it is like that person’s blueprint. The Stranger for all its cruel outlook, has no humour. It is played seriously throughout, holding on for dear life to hold on to its plot twist.
We follow main protagonist Martin through his cynical and depressing perspective that leads you to believe there is no hope at all in this town. This is enhanced by Martin, allowing local thug Caleb to stab him and beat him to near death. In flashbacks, it is revealed Martin has already been attempting suicide, so this explains his lack of fighting back. Caleb (Ariel Levy) will certainly irritate audiences due to the fact his father is a corrupt cop that covers up his son’s deeds. It is only teenager Peter (Nicolas Duran), who has any good qualities that helps to save Martin after being beat up. Sadly, Peter also faces the brutality of Caleb and gets set alight burning most of his body (I told you Caleb was irritating!). So, basically nobody has a chance in this film! However, we do get an undeserved and unexpected happy ending which doesn’t really add much to the story.
While the director chooses to not use the usual vampire clichés, he does not replace them with anything interesting which is the main disappointment. In all honesty, you wouldn’t think it was a vampire film, just a uninteresting mystical drama. Despite the amount of gore you see, it never really achieves dramatic tension. In short, The Stranger is boring. Hopefully The Green Inferno, for all its long delay will be an improvement on Eli Roth’s CV.
The Stranger is out on Blu-ray and DVD now.
