Living in a remote village, a group of villagers keeping themselves separated from the rest of society finds that a strange woman who shows up in their midst to initially be either a blessing or a curse as they suddenly experience a slew of bad fortunate the longer she's among the group.
This one definitely emerges with some enjoyable qualities. One of the more entertaining aspects is the main story here is quite intriguing, for it mixes together a lot of fine elements together into an interesting whole. The combination of fantasy and horror present through this is quite fascinating, offering a form of fairy-tale setup with the history of the village and their form of isolation which means the initial appearance of the stranger in their lives causes a real stir in the community. The initial manner of how their fortunes change, from the seemingly positive like the influx of rain following a drought to the more malicious including adultery and even death, slowly starts to weave through the film. These early scenes slowly turn into the more destructive side with the torrential rainstorms and the overall treatment afforded to the others that ranges from having their fingers bitten off or finding their food tainted, leading to the fantastic scene of the whole village succumbing to the poisoning. That the fantasy elements lead into the horror here gives this a strong punch overall. Likewise, there's a lot to like here with the film's technical qualities. The film manages to capture a series of strikingly beautiful and gorgeous shots, as the sweeping panorama scenes of the forest where they live are vast and majestic which is a real enhancement to the film's overall look. There's a beauty to the rainforest present throughout here that adds immensely to the quality of the film with a strong production style. Even affording the momentary inserts of animals flapping in the background or the briefer moments showing the tranquility of the village, the cinematography creates a nice series of setups which are impressive and making this look far more grandiose and impressive than it really should. While it has a lot to really like, there are a few minor flaws here. The main piece to hold it back is the overall ambiguity that affects the main girl. Trying to keep this one setup over if she's a blessing or a curse upon them means the actual threats against the village are kept to a realistic level. From famine and damaged crops to torrential, nonending rainstorms that befall them, none of these are really that determining of her supernatural origins. It's hard to really tell if The Stranger is because none of them are really that telling as being supernatural in origin and very easily can be normal situations or coincidences. That leads this one into not containing that strong a horror outline as it's quite hard to believe that this is a damaging figure among them. As well, some of the performances are a touch overdone and cartoonish which don't mesh well with the realistic setup featured here, but overall it's not that damaging overall.
Rated Unrated/R: Language, Violence, Brief Nudity and mild sex scenes.
