The Strays Ending Explained And Check Out The Strays Review
by Hemalatha R | Updated Feb 23, 2023
The Strays
The Strays is a novel that tells the story of Neve, a woman who abandons her four children after her husband is murdered in a home invasion. As the novel unfolds, we learn about Neve's past and the reasons why she left her children behind.At the start of the novel, Neve is hosting a charity gala at her home when she sees two people she recognizes as her children, Carl and Dione, who she had abandoned years ago. Neve loses her cool and causes a scene, revealing to the community that she is their mother. The first act of the novel is then recontextualized, and we learn that Dione was the "Black girl" who started working for Ian, Mary's dreads were done by Dione, and Carl gave Sebastian a cigarette and made him take revenge on the school bully.
Neve explains that she was traumatized by Dione's birth and didn't want a second child. Her previous husband, Michael, was also abusive, and she escaped and kept her past life a secret. Neve attempts to make amends with her children and offers them each £10,000 as a peace offering. They accept the money and stage a fake family reunion a few weeks later for Dione's birthday. In the middle of the night, Carl and Dione break into Neve's home, flood the kitchen, and begin tormenting the family. They force Ian to bench-press until he can't anymore, and he dies when the bar splatters through his head. Neve quietly leaves with the delivery driver, leaving her children alone with her two estranged children.
The Strays Ending Explained
The Strays is a powerful novel that explores the complex relationships between parents and their children. Neve's abandonment of her children is a central theme of the novel, and the consequences of her actions are devastating. The novel also explores the effects of trauma on individuals and families, and how secrets can tear them apart. The novel's structure is particularly noteworthy, as the first act is recontextualized in light of Neve's past and her relationship with her two estranged children. The twist is unexpected, and it adds depth to the characters and their motivations. The novel's pacing is also well-done, with the tension building steadily until the dramatic climax.
The characters in The Strays are complex and well-developed, particularly Neve and her children. Neve is a flawed character who is trying to make amends for her past mistakes. She is fiercely protective of her children, but she is also manipulative and controlling. Her children are also complex characters, with their own traumas and flaws. The novel's themes of abandonment, trauma and the effects of secrets on families are timeless and universal. The Strays is a novel that will resonate with readers who have experienced similar issues in their own lives. The novel is also a cautionary tale about the dangers of keeping secrets and the importance of being honest with oneself and one's loved ones. In conclusion, The Strays is a powerful novel that explores the complex relationships between parents and their children. The novel's twist is unexpected, and it adds depth to the characters and their motivations. The novel's pacing is well-done, with the tension building steadily until the dramatic climax. The characters are complex and well-developed, and the themes of abandonment, trauma and the effects of secrets on families are timeless and universal. The Strays is a novel that will resonate with readers who have experienced similar issues in their own lives, and it is a cautionary tale about the importance of being honest with oneself and one's loved ones.
The Strays Review
The Strays, a new film available on Netflix, is a suburban horror that explores the lives of the almost-wealthy, a social thriller that exploits their fears, and eventually, a home invasion movie that outstays its own welcome. The film follows in the footsteps of other recent films like Get Out and Us, as it unpacks the deep-rooted, racially driven rot of contemporary society and presents its findings through a decidedly uncomfortable lens.
The film's protagonist is Neve, played by Ashley Madekwe, a woman who escaped an abusive life in a UK council estate and rebranded herself as an upper-middle-class elite. Neve is Black, but she can pass for white, which gave her the confidence to alter her entire identity. She transformed herself into the sort of person that society had conditioned her into believing is superior. Neve is now a successful professional who goes to classy garden parties and lives blissfully with her husband and two children in a fancy part of town. However, no one around her, including her new family, knows anything about her past. Racism is so deeply ingrained in Neve that she covers up her natural curls with a wig of straight hair that she wears at all times. She refuses to take it off even at home as if her Blackness is a crime waiting to be discovered.
But things begin to spiral out of control when two strangers begin showing up at random times in Neve’s life, and begin to methodically pull at the seams of her perfectly crafted fake existence. Literally haunted by the past, Neve’s paranoia goes unaddressed until a pivotal moment in which she basically turns into a desi parent and smacks her son with a shoe for staying out late. Her husband recoils in shock at the sight of her pummelling their son, which is when he begins to recognize that something is seriously wrong with her. Debutant director Nathaniel Martello-White displays a strong grasp overtone, as he ratchets up the tension with a minimalist approach. The Strays won’t be for fans of the more in-your-face sort of horror cinema popularised in recent years by James Wan’s successful movies. Martello-White separates his narrative into three Rashomon-style chapters; the first is presented from Neve’s point of view, the second from the perspective of her two stalkers, and the third through the lens of her buried former identity. Try as hard as she might, the truth, the movie suggests, will always bubble up to the surface.
Despite the skill on display in The Strays, there is, however, a strong perspective problem here. More than once, you wonder why Neve is the protagonist of the story and not the two strangers. In fact, presenting them — the only two overtly Black characters in sight — as the violent ‘villains’, especially when the movie itself wants us to believe that they’re the ones who’ve been wronged, is dicey optics at best, and self-defeating at worst. The Strays often wander into some potentially dramatic territory but leave before sniffing under every rock. The Strays is a social thriller that explores the dark side of society. It presents a world where people are judged based on their race, and where Black people feel the need to hide their Blackness to be accepted in certain circles. The film delves into the complexities of race and identity, and how people are shaped by their experiences. Neve's story is a cautionary tale about the dangers of trying to erase one's past and assimilate into a world that doesn't accept you for who you are.
The Strays Ending Explained - FAQs
The Strays is a social thriller and home invasion movie that explores the lives of the almost-wealthy and delves into the racially-driven rot of contemporary society. It shares some similarities with the Jordan Peele films Get Out and Us.
The protagonist of The Strays is Neve, played by Ashley Madekwe. She is a Black woman who has rebranded herself as an upper-middle class elite, hiding her natural curls with a wig of straight hair and covering up her past. Neve's fake existence is methodically pulled apart by two strangers who begin showing up at random times in her life.
Debutant director Nathaniel Martello-White takes a minimalist approach to ratcheting up the tension in The Strays. He separates the narrative into three Rashomon-style chapters: the first from Neve's point of view, the second from the perspective of her two stalkers, and the third through the lens of her buried former identity.
The article suggests that there is a perspective problem in The Strays, as it sometimes feels like the two Black strangers who are presented as the violent 'villains' could have been the protagonists of the story. This raises some potentially dicey optics, especially since the movie itself wants us to believe that they have been wronged.
While the article acknowledges the skill on display in The Strays and praises the director's grasp of tone, it also suggests that the film can feel like it's overstaying its welcome as a home invasion movie. Additionally, the perspective problem and potentially problematic optics can detract from the viewing experience.