Love is strange in co-writer/director Leigh Janiak’s overambitious but promising low-budget chiller. Brits Harry Treadaway and Rose Leslie play American newlyweds Paul and Bea, hoping for a week of marital bliss at a secluded lakeside cabin before Paul finds Bea battered and disoriented in the woods. Janiak mashes romance and horror tropes to create an intriguing psychological drama with smart things to say about husband/wife dynamics.
The thematic weight drags down the tension, yet just when it seems Janiak has forgotten the scares she pulls off a creepy finale.
