All of Us Strangers

Lonely television screenwriter Adam lives a secluded life in London. At his tower block, he meets his drunk neighbour Harry, who has noticed him in the building and wants to join him for the night. Reluctantly, Adam declines and sends Harry away.

Adam takes up writing and decides to visit his suburban childhood home, now unoccupied. He encounters his parents, who both died in a car accident decades earlier just before he was twelve, and appear as they did at the age they died. Adam has dinner with them and promises to visit again.

Returning to his flat, Adam encounters Harry by the lift. He finally works the courage to reciprocate Harry's interest. They quickly develop strong feelings for each other. Harry confides how distant he feels from his own family, and Adam opens up about the loss of his parents.

Adam has several subsequent meetings with his parents. During a talk with his mother, Adam reveals his sexual orientation and they discuss it. His mother accepts that Adam is gay, but reacts with concern and slight discomfort. On a later visit with his father, Adam discusses being hurt by his father's silence about the bullying Adam experienced as a child. The two tearfully reconcile and hug.

Later, as Adam and Harry's relationship flourishes, the two go clubbing and take ketamine. Adam admits it is his first time, and, Harry implies that he is a frequent user. During the ketamine trip, Adam finds himself in his childhood bed, this time at Christmas. They hang lights on the Christmas tree together and celebrate happily as music plays. Unable to sleep, Adam gets in bed with his parents and tells his mother about being sent to stay with his grandmother after her death, which his mother laments.

Harry suddenly appears next to Adam, before Adam now finds himself on an Underground train and sees Harry in various places on the train and in the station, but not recognizing Adam. Adam sees a distorted vision of his younger self screaming in the reflection of the train car.

Adam then wakes up in his flat, and Harry tells him he brought him home after Adam started acting strangely. Adam discusses the details of his parents' death to him the next morning, where he reveals his father died instantly, but his mother, with disfiguring injuries lingered for several weeks in the hospital. His grandmother kept Adam from seeing his mother due to her dire condition, which has forever haunted Adam.

Freshly confident in their relationship, Adam takes Harry to his parents' house to meet them - not telling Harry where they are or why. Adam notes that his parents are not present, even after yelling and banging intensely on the doors and windows. Growing concerned for Adam's health, Harry demands Adam tell him where they are and Adam tells him. Harry continues to urge them to leave, just as they both see a faint image of Adam's mother through a window. Harry, horrified and confused, steps back as Adam pounds on the door, breaking a window.

Upon waking up the next morning with his parents, they explain that Harry went home. They tell Adam that in order for him to find happiness, he must let them go and move forward in his life with Harry. They take him to his favourite childhood restaurant, where they ask if their deaths were quick and painless. Adam tells them they both died instantly, a particular relief to his mother, even if untrue. The three tearfully reaffirm their love for each other, after which both parents vanish.

Having accepted the loss of his parents, Adam goes home to see Harry. Entering Harry's flat he notices an awful stench, with ketamine residue on a table and squalor throughout the flat. Adam finds Harry dead in the bedroom, holding the same whiskey bottle he was drinking from the night they met. Adam now realizes that Harry overdosed that very first night after Adam had thwarted his advances. "I was just so lonely."

In the kitchen Adam finds Harry, holding the vodka bottle and in his corpse's clothes. Appearing distraught and embarrassed, Harry wonders why no one has found his body, and Adam reminds him that he has. Adam assures Harry that everything will be all right, and takes Harry back to his flat. The two lie in bed together, tightly in each other's arms. When Harry asks Adam to play a record, Adam remembers the lyrics Harry sang to him the first night they met in the doorway. He starts to quietly sing "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

"I'll protect you from the hooded claw Keep the vampires from your door."

Harry closes his eyes and reflects the same comment he made when they first met. "Everything is so quiet." He relaxes as Adam continues to stroke his hair and whisper the song into his ear. The two fade into a heart shape, before turning into a ball of light, which further joins other balls of light - as if stars in the sky.

• Andrew Scott as Adam
  • Carter John Grout as young Adam
• Paul Mescal as Harry
• Jamie Bell as Adam's father
• Claire Foy as Adam's mother

Graham Broadbent and Sarah Harvey of Blueprint Pictures first pitched the project to Yamada in June 2017. Later that year, Haigh and Film4 Productions came on board. Haigh described his adaptation of the novel as "a long and sometimes painful process". He said, "I wanted to pick away at my own past as Adam does in the film. I was interested in exploring the complexities of both familial and romantic love, but also the distinct experience of a specific generation of gay people growing up in the 80s. I wanted to move away from the traditional ghost story of the novel and find something more psychological, almost metaphysical."^[6]

On 30 June 2022, the film, then known as Strangers, and the principal cast were announced.^[7] The announced plot was brief and vaguely worded, and attracted inquiries on social media as to whether the film involved a romance between Scott and Mescal's characters.^[8]

Filming was in progress in the United Kingdom when the announcement was made.^[7] Haigh's childhood home served as the filming location for the house in which Adam finds his parents.^[9][6] Nightclub sequences were shot on location at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.^[6]

The film premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2023, and played at the 2023 New York Film Festival on 1 October 2023. It also made it to the main competition of the 68th Valladolid International Film Festival.^[10] Cork International Film Festival chose the film as its International Gala film, acting as the Irish premier, on 19 November 2023. The screening was held at the Everyman Theatre to a packed house. The QCinema International Film Festival hosted three screenings of the film on 19, 20, and 24 November 2023.^[11] It began a limited release in the United States on 22 December 2023 and was released in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2024.^[12][13][14]

In its limited opening weekend, the film made $232,909 from four theaters, a per-venue average of $58,000.^[15][16]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 267 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "All of Us Strangers examines profound grief and love through a fantastical lens that is always grounded on human emotion."^[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[18]

Filmmaker Edgar Wright praised the film, saying "I am in awe of what Andrew [Haigh] managed to do in this film. It's a true testament to his artistry that he was able to make a film so personal, emotional and resonant, yet also so satisfying within its place in a genre. Though a traditional ghost story might end on a note of sadness or shock, the fact that Andrew is able to leave us with a moment of infinite beauty is to be cherished."^[19]

In December 2024, Collider ranked the film at number 4 on its list of the "10 Best Fantasy Movies of the 2020s," with Robert Lee III writing that it "has a lot of different moving parts that all seamlessly come together to make for an emotional rollercoaster of tear-jerker moments. From its exploration of the isolation and self-doubt that grief and pain place upon us to the inherent genius of a premise that allows Adam to come out to his parents after a lifetime of never believing he'd get the chance. It's a work of art that can be interpreted in a multitude of different ways, which is one of the greatest strengths that this type of mature fantasy drama can provide."^[20]

In July 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 247.^[21]

The film won 7 awards at the 2023 BIFA Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay.^[22]