Hot Picks
|
|
|
Stray
USA 2015
produced by Nena Eskridge, David Landau, Veronica Eskridge (executive)
directed by Nena Eskridge
starring Gabrielle Stone, Dan McGlaughlin, Arita Trahan, Andrew Sensenig, Samantha Fairfield Walsh, Sean Patrick Folster, Paul McNair, Ana-Maria Arkan, Ben Lyle Lotka, Alexandra Landau, Joe Koch, Daniel Kelly, Eileen Jacobs, Aoife Uhlar Meacle, Scarlett Robison
written by Nena Eskridge, music by John Avarese
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Jennifer (Gabrielle Stone) has been on the run all of her life, at
first together with her father who has killed her mother and then set the
house on fire, later from her father - but now she wants to settle down,
living your typical smalltown life with a loving husband ... but the first
man she finds who would qualify for the job as the man in her life, Marvin
(Andrew Sensenig), a widower, tries to get rid of her after a night of sin
since he isn't yet ready for a commitment - and thus she kills him and
takes over his apartment as her temporary residence. Not much later, and
in the same small town, she stumbles upon Greg (Dan McGlaughlin), a bar
owner looking for a "cook" who can fry burgers - and Jennifer
applies for and gets the job, and it's obvious from the get-go that she's
totally into Greg ... especially to his girlfriend Sarah (Samantha
Fairfield Walsh), the waitress in his bar. However, through clever
intrigue and always catching him in his weak moments, Jennifer manages to
win over Greg to her side, also by convincing him that Sarah's cheating on
him - a claim totally unfounded by the way ... and then Jennifer finds out
she's pregnant, and even though it's mathematically less than likely, she
convinces Greg it's his. But once little Lilly (Scarlett Robison) is here,
she's a less then perfect mother, suffering from severe postpartum
depression and never feeling any real connection to her own daughter, so
much so that she never breastfeeds her and leaves all the hard work to
Greg. This somehow drives Greg back into the arms of Sarah - but when
Jennifer finds that out, her homocidal instincts awaken, perfect smalltown
life or not ... Stray is quite the creepy film, and
that's mainly because it doesn't try too hard to be. In fact, the
direction is very laid back when it comes to shocks, most murders are just
hinted at, anything that could be spectacle is downplayed. And even though
the lead character as such is a psychopath if there ever was one, the film
finds likeable or at least relatable traits in her (also thanks to
Gabrielle Stone's performance of course). And this whole rather laid-back
attitude works totally in favour of the movie's eeriness here, it creates
massive suspense in scenes that are on the surface portraying nothing more
than everyday life. Quite cool, actually, and quite different from the
cookie cutter psycho thrillers one mostly gets to see these days ...
|
|
|