Stoker is a 2013 psychological thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook, in his English-language debut, and written by Wentworth Miller.

The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Dermot Mulroney, and Jacki Weaver.

Stoker had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2013, and was theatrically released in the United States on 1 March 2013, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

[4] On her 18th birthday, India Stoker, a girl with a strong acuteness of the senses, is left with her unstable mother Evelyn after her loving father Richard dies in a car crash.

India unleashes her inner aggression at school and stabs a bully, Chris Pitts, in the hand with a pencil after he tries to land a punch to her head.

Inside, she finds dozens of letters Charlie wrote to her over the years, which detail his travels and his love for his niece, although they have never met.

Feeling hurt and betrayed, Charlie bludgeoned Richard to death with a rock and staged the car accident.

India is shocked and angered, but Charlie explains he has come for her and gives her a birthday present, a pair of stiletto heels, to replace her more childish saddle shoes.

She seemingly forgives Charlie and grows closer to him after he provides an alibi for her when Sheriff Howard questions her about Whip's disappearance.

Charlie seduces Evelyn and then attempts to strangle her with a belt, but India fatally shoots him in the neck with her rifle.

[10] Back in June 2010, before Wasikowska and Kidman were ultimately cast, both Carey Mulligan and Jodie Foster were reported to be in talks to star in the film.

[11] In June 2011, it was reported that Matthew Goode was in talks to play Charlie,[12] after Colin Firth, who was attached earlier, had to drop out.

[13] Jacki Weaver, Lucas Till, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Brown and Dermot Mulroney joined the cast in July and August 2011.

In addition to screenwriter Wentworth Miller stating that the film was influenced by Shadow of a Doubt, there are a number of Hitchcock's themes, plot devices and motifs used within it.

The website's consensus reads: "Its script doesn't quite carry the dramatic heft of his earlier work, but Park Chan-wook's Stoker showcases his eye for sumptuous imagery and his affection for dark, atmospheric narratives populated by mysterious characters.

[28] Writing for Variety, Guy Lodge praised the film, calling it "a splendidly demented gumbo of Hitchcock thriller".

She shows fear and disdain in the most subtle ways, never overplaying a character that could turn into a campy arch villain with just the tiniest bit of scene-chewing.

[32] Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia writes, "Stoker is constantly engaging, suitably intense, certainly different, always suspenseful and even stylishly directed, but it is not Oldboy".