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The Strays
The Strays
	Release poster
Directed by	Nathaniel Martello-White
Screenplay by	Nathaniel Martello-White
Produced by	Valentina Brazzini; Tristan Goligher; Rob Watson;
Starring	Ashley Madekwe; Bukky Bakray; Jorden Myrie; Samuel Small; Maria Almeida; Justin Salinger;
Cinematography	Adam Scarth
Edited by	Mark Towns
Music by	Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
Production; companies	Air Street Films; The Bureau;
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	22 February 2023;
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Strays is a 2023 British horror thriller film written and directed by Nathaniel Martello-White, in his directorial debut. In the film, Neve (Ashley Madekwe) is a biracial upper-class woman leading an idyllic life with her family. As a socialite in her community and the deputy headmistress of a private school, Neve's privileged life is jeopardized when her troubled past resurfaces to undermine everything she has built.

Plot

Cheryl, a biracial woman, is living in an undisclosed location in England. She expresses concerns about discrimination and financial difficulties to her sister on the phone. The subsequent scenes show her rejecting phone calls from her spouse and leaving a message on the fridge about going to the hair salon.

Several years later, we are introduced to Neve, a fair-skinned biracial woman married to Ian, a white man, with two biracial children, Sebastian and Mary. She is disdainful of anything associated with "blackness." Neve works at her kids’ school as a deputy headmistress and plans to host a fundraising gala at her home. She often gets visions of black people and gets disturbed. At the fundraising gala, Neve confronts two black individuals that she believes to be strangers; they address her as their mother.

Flashbacks to five days prior, with "Carl and Dione" being the focus of the story, the two black teens Neve has been seeing. The two are on an unknown mission that involves staying at a hotel, with Carl taking on the name "Marvin" and getting a job as the school janitor and Dione taking the name “Abigail” and working as an assistant in Ian's office. They befriend Neve's children, Dione inviting Mary to the hotel room for drinking and partying and Carl inviting Sebastian to smoke after his basketball game. Afterwards, Carl convinces Sebastian to brutally attack his school bully.

In the present day, it is revealed that Neve is Cheryl, and Carl and Dione are indeed her children. She meets them at a diner and gives them ten thousand pounds each in order to help them back on their feet as they return to London. However, Carl and Dione break into Neve's house. Carl takes everyone's phones and dumps them in the sink, where he turns on the water that starts to flood the living room. Carl and Dione claim it's Dione's birthday and they should celebrate as a family, and force the family to order Uber Eats.

Carl confronts Neve for trying to pay them off, which was unknown to the rest of her family. This leads to Ian threatening a divorce, however, Dione intervenes and suggests playing a board game. Neve, who is visibly upset, vomits. Afterwards, she appears to adopt a new and happy persona, and the group begins to play Scrabble. Carl becomes annoyed and forfeits the game before demanding that Ian accompany him to the family's gym. There, Carl coerces Ian to lift increasingly heavy weights until he is unable to hold them, and the weight falls on him, resulting in his apparent death.

Meanwhile, after the Uber Eats driver arrives, Neve tells the group she will tip the driver and be right back; she does not return. The driver's engine starts up and drives away, implying that Neve has left with him. Mary and Sebastian are left standing in the flooded living room with Dione and Carl, as Neve has now abandoned her second set of children.

Cast

Ashley Madekwe as Neve / Cheryl
Bukky Bakray as Abigail
Jorden Myrie as Marvin
Samuel Small as Sebastian
Maria Almeida as Mary
Justin Salinger as Ian
Lucy Liemann as Amanda
Tom Andrews as Barry
Rob Jarvis as Robert
Michael Warburton as Kenneth
Alastair Ellery as Keith
Vanessa Bailey as Elle
Joanna Brookes as Betty

Production

The film was produced by Valentina Brazzini, Tristan Goligher and Rob Watson.^[2] Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch composed the score.^[3]

Principal photography took place between September and November 2021, in London, Suffolk and Berkshire.^[4]

Release

The Strays was released on Netflix on 22 February 2023.^[2]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 26 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10.^[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[6]