Cast: Megalyn Echikunwoke, Mo McRae

Written And DirectedBy: Jas Summers

Release Year: 2025

Studio/Streamer: Hulu

Audio Description Provided By:

Written by:

Narrated By:

What Is it?: A couple at the end of their marriage find themselves trapped inside their house by benevolent forces that force them to deal with the demons of their relationship, and come to terms with all of the unsaid emotions.

What Doesn’t Work: For those of us who celebrated Christmas, perhaps you get the analogy of having something on your list that was so specific it couldn’t simply fit in a box. Sometimes, your parents wouldn’t even try and wrap it, like a bicycle. But, perhaps you went for something a bit more portable, like perhaps a pogo stick? It’s just large enough to not be in a box, so your parents take on the futile act of wrapping it to keep the Christmas morning surprise. Even though you can look across the room and immediately identify what it must be, you have to still act surprised, because this whole thing is a mutual experience. That is Stay. I know this director probably felt really proud of their work, and the fact that they hide certain elements until the end, in an effort to give you a shocking conclusion, but it just doesn’t work.

This is attempted through lack of character development. A better version of the film would have showed this couple breaking down a little in the beginning, outside of the home, and not using the house as a metaphor for therapy. A better screenwriter also wouldn’t have used the wife as a catch all for explaining all the paranormal stuff occurring. She seems to know why the house won’t let them leave, identifies the spirit, and even has a book of spells to deal with it. This feels OK as we know nothing about her, but it also seems rather convenient she’d be haunted by something she has a particular set of skills to defeat.

The actors did fine with what they could, but this was a waste of time.

Audio Description: the description tries to bring together the barely existing tension, pulling things together as the film pushes on paranoia as we watch a little dabbling of a ghost story. There’s some emotional impact at the end, which was well written, but most of this film is these characters getting into very light spooky scenes, since this film means very little.

You Might Like it If: You prefer scary movies that are barely scary.

You Might Not Like it If: You prefer scary movies that are scary.

Final Thoughts: An effort to minimalize the information we know about our characters at the beginning, coupled with giving one character an odd amount of knowledge about what’s going on, are part of the reasons you should leave this predictable haunted house ASAP.

Rotten: Final Grade: 3.4/10