“The Strays”
Movie Review
Nathaniel Martello-White is the writer and director of the
British horror movie The Strays. Neve, who is portrayed by Ashley Madekwe in
the movie, is a biracial, upper-class woman who lives a happy life with her
family. Neve's affluent life as a socialite in her neighborhood and the deputy
headmistress of a prestigious school is threatened when her difficult past
resurfaces to tear apart everything she has created. In 2023, the movie was
released.
Black woman Cheryl resides in an obscure part of England.
On the phone, she talks to her sister about her worries about discrimination
and her financial situation. In the scenes that follow, she ignores her
husband's calls and writes a note on the refrigerator announcing her intention
to visit a hair salon.
A few years later, Neve, a fair-skinned Black woman married to
Ian, a white guy, and the mother of Sebastian and Mary, two multiracial
children, enters the picture. She despises everything connected to
"blackness." Neve wants to organize a charity banquet at her house
while also working as the deputy headmistress at her children's school. She
frequently experiences disturbing visions of black people. Neve runs into two
black people she thinks are strangers at the charity banquet; they address her
as their mother.
In a flashback from five days earlier, the two black people Neve
has been seeing—"Carl and Dione"—serve as the story's main
characters. Carl assumes the name "Marvin" and accepts a position as
a school janitor while Dione assumes the name "Abigail" and works as
an assistant at Ian's office. The two are on an unidentified mission that
involves staying at a hotel. Dione invites Mary to the hotel room for drinking
and partying, while Carl invites Sebastian to smoke after his basketball game
as they become friends with Neve's kids. Then, Carl persuades Sebastian to
viciously assault his school bully.
Neve is shown to be Cheryl in the present, and Carl and Dione
are in fact her children. As they return to London, she meets them at a diner
and gives them each 10,000 pounds to help them get back on their feet. However,
Neve's home is broken into by Carl and Dione. After collecting everyone's
phones, Carl places them in the sink and turns on the water, which causes the
living room to begin to flood. Dione's birthday is today, therefore the family
should celebrate together, Carl and Dione insist, forcing them to order Uber
Eats.
Neve is confronted by Carl for trying to settle the debt, which
the rest of her family was unaware of. Ian threatens to get a divorce as a
result, but Dione steps in and recommends playing a board game. Neve throws up
while clearly agitated. She then seems to take on a new, cheery character, and
the group starts playing Scrabble. After giving up the game out of annoyance,
Carl demands that Ian go with him to the family's gym. There, Carl forces Ian
to raise more and heavier objects until he can no longer support them and the
object falls on him, causing what appears to be his death.
Neve tells the group she will tip the Uber Eats driver and
return in a moment after the driver comes, but she does not. The driver's
engine fires up and he speeds off, leaving the impression that Neve has
followed. Neve has now abandoned her second set of kids, leaving Mary and Sebastian
along with Dione and Carl standing in the wet living room.
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