Originally a Quibi miniseries that was later edited into a feature-length film for Hulu, The Stranger is a compelling misfire. It showcases exceptional performances, solid filmmaking, and a nightmarishly intriguing premise. However, its increasing and distracting implausibility and, not to mention, the shoddy explanations for it, make it a movie within which it is hard to get lost. Moments that should be filled with tension and terror are often ineffective and fail to grab your full attention because you’ll most likely be trying to make sense of the film’s explanations of how it’s all possible and what, exactly, is going on.
Maika Monroe stars as a rideshare driver whose latest passenger is an unrelenting psychopath (Dane DeHaan) who somehow knows her every move and starts stalking her all over Los Angeles. She is soon framed for a crime she didn’t commit, then has to elude the police on top of running for her life. She finds help from a kind convenience store worker (Avan Jogia), who unwittingly gets thrown into the insanity.
The Stranger largely follows in the footsteps of director Robert Harmon’s 1986 horror/thriller cult classic, The Hitcher. In that film, C. Thomas Howell plays a man driving across country who picks up an icily menacing hitchhiker portrayed by Rutger Hauer, only to have the hitchhiker follow him on his journey and make his life a living and never-ending hell. What makes The Hitcher work so well is that it’s intentionally irrational. It doesn’t try to explain how Hauer’s character is doing what he’s doing, as it leaves such logistics in the abstract. The Hitcher is an unabashed nightmare that boldly and effectively follows nightmare logic. Hauer’s powers and foresight are basically inhuman, but he and the film are still believable and terrifying because that’s the reality that is so clearly set up from the very beginning.
The Stranger doesn’t succeed in a manner similar to The Hitcher because it makes the mistake of trying to make its far-fetched scenario seem realistic and logical. It’s too outlandish to do so successfully, and it doesn’t have the courage to run with its premise without making sure there’s some explanation (no matter how ridiculous) to appease select audience members who just wouldn’t understand or be on board with it any other way. This backfires often and regularly takes you out of the movie by raising too many questions that the film simply isn’t equipped to satisfactorily answer. If The Stranger just let itself exist, left itself open to interpretation, realized it couldn’t appeal to everyone, and let its story flow freely and organically, it could have been a great, surreal, and horrifying thrill ride. As it stands, however, it’s just too head-scratching and ultimately too noncommittal to its stronger ideas to be fully enjoyable.
Monroe is dedicated and vulnerable, exhaustively staying in a state of hysteria for most of the film’s duration. She is a wholly believable victim, but is just as believable when her character finds the strength to fight back. DeHaan, one of the most interesting young actors working onscreen today, is appropriately intimidating and disturbingly sinister. It’s a fairly hefty fault of the film, however, that his character isn’t fully or properly utilized. He disappears regularly throughout and it deeply affects the film’s momentum every time he does. Jogia is likable and empathetic with his strong portrayal of a man whose good nature draws him further and further into a dangerous situation.
The Stranger tries too hard to make sense and to be accessible to mass audiences. Its efforts to do so ironically only make it more alienating, confusing, dull, and damaging to the film’s overall enjoyability. If it simplified itself without trying to explain every detail, it might have been ambiguously tantalizing. Instead, it’s just another average horror/thriller that falls short of its promise to be something truly unforgettable.
GRADE: C
