James Wright While this film has an interesting premise and could have been a really good story, the execution is just so dull, slow and overly- dramatic that it really does suck all the joy and entertainment value out of it. What's more it takes ages to show the audience what most people will have guessed in the first five minutes. With all the grandstanding and wasted time taken away this really could have just been a solid short rather than a feature film.Overall it is hard to recommend The Stranger since it doesn't really provide enough entertainment or originality to justify its existence. Only watch if you for some reason enjoy really slow, not- horrorific in any way, horrors that have only the smallest amount of substance to justify their overly-serious tone.

view_and_review This movie was pretty good but it had the potential to be great. Ooooh I'm so bothered. Everything lined up: the story, the camera-work, the directing... then there was one character and his acting. My oh my how terrible was his acting. Lieutenant De Luca was his name (Luis Gnecco). He was abysmal. A bald, tough guy, rule breaking cop with a loose cannon for a son that he would stick his neck out to protect. Even when his son assaults and terrorizes random people in the small town the lieutenant makes sure to cover up for him. But he was so over the top with his acting and such a caricature. You know how there are some bad guys that you respect because of their badassness (ala Darth Vader, the Joker, Michael Myers) and there are some bad guys that you loathe because of how wicked and evil they are (Mommy Dearest, Chucky, etc.). Lieutenant De Luca was neither. You just hate him because he's trying to be something he's not. He wants to be the Darth Vader but he is more like Dark Helmet--doesn't look the part of villain and can't act the part of villain. He romped around his small town doing as he pleased with total disregard of any semblance of laws. And because we've learned that in a small town you can do that, the other police as well as the townsfolk accepted it as commonplace. It wasn't simply his overt flexing of his executive muscle, it was the total lack of tact, guile or cleverness and the absolutely silly pathetic look he displayed when he was supposed to be tough. He was neither tough nor smart as hard as he tried to portray that. His stature and face conveyed "pity me" and the forced nature of his gruff tough guy voice conveyed "Let me make a good impression in this role." None of it worked. His character didn't work for him and he didn't work for his character.I was so torn. The two main protagonists and the story had me drawn in but I just kept being nagged by that lieutenant. He was like a cut lip when you're trying to enjoy a good meal. The food is so good but the overall enjoyment is ruined by the pain.

LeonLouisRicci This Indie has Insurmountable Problems from the Get-Go. First, the Dialog Sounds Dubbed and the Ultra-Melodramatic Overacting by Everyone has to be the Fault of the Director. Also, in almost Every Scene Characters are Told to Do Something and They just Stare, are told to do it Again, more Staring, and in a Louder Voice told to do it Again, and then They Slowly Begin to do what They are Told. This makes for an Awkward Flow and the Movie Hiccups this way Throughout. Add to that when different Characters Use the Phrase..."You piece of Sh*t"...at least Three Times, all Hope is Lost for this to be anything but Amateur Hour.The Dark, almost Black Color Template with Bright Red Blood Splattered about calls Attention to itself most of the Time and it Looks quite Silly. The Story attempts to be Ambiguous and Clever but Never is Mysterious or Intriguing.The Film really Doesn't Manage to do Anything Remarkable but it's Not Awful. The Filmmakers are just Stretching Their Talent Beyond its reach. If there is Such a Thing as Trying to Hard, This is it.

Peter Pluymers "The Stranger" is a typical example of a film with an original approach to an already widely used subject, that initially creates a momentary excitement, which then however is nipped in the bud by a pace that claims some patience, dark settings (although in this case that's quite obviously) and mostly lousy renditions by some members of the cast. In the beginning I had the impression that this story took place somewhere in South America. Afterwards I was quite surprised when it turned out it was situated somewhere in Canada. The Chilean director Guillermo Amoedo sought most of his cast among the Chilean population. Hence the confusion. Besides, the sounding title "Eli Roth presents The Stranger" isn't a reason to get excited immediately. Just as in "Clown" his name is prominently mentioned on the cover. But this isn't an insurance for a high quality end result.The main character Martin (Cristobal Tapia Montt) appears one evening at the door of a shabby house that's inhabited by Peter (Nicolas Duran) and his mother Monica (Alessandra Guerzoni), asking if they know where his ex-girlfriend is. The simple answer he gets, leads him to the local cemetery where he's looking sadly down at the grave of Ana (Lorenza Izzo). Moments later the local hooligan Caleb (Ariel Levy) and his mindless friends bump into him. Martin doesn't even bother to defend himself while these loafers brutally molest him. It looks like he's sick of life and he's actually left behind for dead. Caleb's father, Police Inspector De Luca (Luis Gnecco), tries to cover up the crime and hides the corpse. Peter, who witnessed the whole thing, takes Martin home to take care of him. Apparently it's not so obvious to kill this stranger and afterwards it seems that his blood, as he declared furiously, is contagious.The only feeling I had after watching "The Stranger" was an unsatisfied one. The subject was inventive and had potential to make something interesting out of it, but that wasn't realized. The film is painfully slow and in terms of action it's not that impressive. The obvious theme of vampirism shines through the film even though it's not explicitly named. But the fact that Martin is in need of consuming blood and can't stand sunlight clearly points in that direction. His only goal is to get rid of similar people, including himself. Therefore there's this ever-present morbid, depressed and violent atmosphere around him. And then there is the phenomenon of healing blood which really distances this film from all the other movies with blood-sucking creatures of the night. But attempts to differentiate itself from the older movies where Dracula and associates flutter, are nullified because the most common clichés of this genre are still valid. For example, a sun cream with factor 100 is indispensable for Martin.Cristobal Tapia Montt really was wonderful in his role. The constant inner struggle. The destructive attitude on the one hand and the role as martyr which he appropriates himself. At times I even thought he looked a little bit like Jake Gyllenhaal. Nicolas Duran's contribution was also acceptable on some level. Although I'm still impressed how quickly he managed to overcome his drug addiction. Furthermore, the rest was filled with the familiar, clichéd characters. But also there were some abominable interpretations. At times it seemed as if the dialogs were read directly from the script. Among other Alessandra Guerzoni made use of overacting in general. And Luis Gnecco appeared not to master the English language and it looked as if he was dubbed sometimes. Even Ariel Levy's performance wasn't that impressive from time to time. Although his appearance at the end was fairly successful."The Stranger" isn't exactly a masterpiece and has some flaws. Yet Amoedo succeeded in creating an eerie atmosphere with some horror moments and downright brutal, bloody fragments. This film brings nothing new in the familiar horror genre, but it's still worth the effort to give it a try. And although the ever-present darkness isn't exactly an advantage, ultimately this creates a dark and grim atmosphere.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT