A ghost story packed with "creeping psychological dread"

Domhnall Gleeson may currently be starring in the most family-friendly film around (albeit as the bad guy), the live-action Peter Rabbit, but it sounds like his next film project will see him feature in a much darker role.

No, we're not talking about him reprising his role as General Hux in Star Wars Episode 9 (especially as he's still waiting to see if he'll be involved in that one), but rather a new project called The Little Stranger, which sees Domnhall reunited with his Frank director Lenny Abrahamson.

"I wouldn't say horror," the actor told Digital Spy about the film. "It's a ghost story – a very unsettling psychological ghost story, in a way that I think will be compulsive.

"There's an oddness to it. You know like The Others and films like that – there's something like that about it."

Based on the novel by Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger tells the story of a country doctor in 1947 who's called to a patient at the once-grand and now-in-decline Hundreds Hall, the inhabitants of which are haunted by something ominous.

"Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You – it's got that vibe to it," Domhnall continued. "And Gaslight – not exactly that vibe because they're older, but it's got something of that oddness to it, creeping psychological dread, that I think is scary but not quite horror.

"The guy I'm playing is containing a lot of remorse and anger and sadness and sexuality."

We're already sold, but before we can get stuck into the creepy, not-quite-horror dread of it all, we get to enjoy Domhnall in Peter Rabbit first, where he plays the rabbit-hating Thomas McGregor.

The film sees Thomas and Peter Rabbit (James Corden) start a war with each other by setting up various traps, and it's a set-up that the actor compares to Home Alone when it comes to the film's physical comedy.

"One of my favourite films still is Home Alone," Domhnall told us. "I just love it. It's such a pure thing, even though it involves damage to someone else. Because it's in the film world, you know no one's actually hurt.

"If a kid saw someone getting electrocuted in the room with them, they'd start crying! But seeing it in a film and you've been told it's okay is amazing. Doing that stuff was – I adored it. I loved the timings of all that. It's almost like old-fashioned comedy."

Peter Rabbit in is cinemas this Friday (March 16), while The Little Stranger opens in cinemas on August 31.