The storylines of a psychological thriller, a dysfunctional family drama and a supernatural backwoods horror all clamour for attention in this new indie feature by writer-director duo Mike Clarke and Paul Gerrard, in which none of these disparate elements fully convince.

Recovering from her grief at the murder of her husband during a botched burglary, widower Amanda moves from the city to the countryside, in the reluctant company of teenage daughter Karli, to reopen a bed-and-breakfast. When a stranger arrives at their door, seeking shelter after finding themselves stuck, he’s offered accommodation even though the pair are not yet really ready to accept guests. But as visitor Kyle’s explanations for his predicament twist and change, opening up rifts in the already strained relationship between mother and daughter, his hosts’ sense of unease grows. As night again falls, sinister forces emerge to threaten them all.

The Stranger does deliver some fleeting moments of genuine alarm, most notably when the ghouls emerge from the woods, and when the main monster freakishly flexes its muscles. But amidst the more mundane beats of parent-teenager strife, and the awkwardly plotted mystery of Kyle’s true motives, it’s not enough to generate any sustained sense of peril. It’s also a shame that the script offers no explanation for the obsession of the supernatural forces relentlessly pursuing Kyle, a fugitive with such terrible decision-making skills, it’s amazing that he’s been able to survive for so long. Flashes of bloody violence confirm that Clarke and Gerrard are willing to stitch darker threads into the fabric of their storytelling. But the restraint they apply here is not what befits the subject matter.

THE STRANGER is available now in the UK on streaming platforms