20
The movie touts a “Presented By” credit for modern horror maven Eli Roth, but there’s none of that director’s shock or sly subversion. Don’t bother getting to know this stranger.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
The New York Times by Andy Webster
The movie benefits greatly from Mr. Amoedo’s largely steady direction and the uniform acting skills of its Chilean cast (performing in English).
40
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
While the director/screenwriter is to be commended for avoiding the usual bloodsucker clichés, he hasn't replaced them with anything particularly interesting, with the result that the story plays like a quasi-mystical melodrama featuring characters about whom we care little.
30
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
Seeking existential, noirish heft, Amoedo coyly avoids articulating what Martin is. (He calls himself "sick.") But it only comes across like an amateur play at gravitas, one unsupported by dully weighted scenes and clunky dialogue, delivered mostly by English-speaking actors straining to hide Latin accents.
40
Once Amoedo lays all the cards out on the table, The Stranger feels like a piece of genre revisionism only in its deliberate, grinding pace, not in any refreshing turns of the plot.
25
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
While The Stranger is bad, the fact that it makes you wait and wait for its excessively dismal perspective to be justified by a measly little twist is even worse.