Focus Features has released the first trailer for The Little Stranger, the highly anticipated new film from Oscar-nominated Frank and Room filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson. Written by Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl) and based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Waters, the film takes place during the summer of 1948 and revolves around a country doctor named Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson). He is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his housemaid mother used to work, but when he encounters the home’s curious family, ominous occurrences soon follow.

While the trailer reveals a bit too much for my taste, it still does a swell job of selling an evocative ghost story and I like the idea of a film about science versus belief. Abrahamson was a somewhat surprise Best Director nominee for Room, but he's also tremendously versatile and this film looks to be a proper fright fest—albeit one anchored by strong performances and complex characters. Indeed, this ensemble is terrific, and I can't wait to see what surprises the full film has in store.

Check out the Little Stranger trailer below. The film also stars Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, and Charlotte Rampling. The Little Stranger opens in theaters on August 31st.

Here's the official synopsis for The Little Stranger:

THE LITTLE STRANGER tells the story of Dr. Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1948, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked.  The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries.  But it is now in decline and its inhabitants - mother, son and daughter - are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life.  When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how disturbingly, the family’s story is about to become entwined with his own.