{"id":25552,"date":"2017-06-21T06:10:21","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25552"},"modified":"2017-06-21T06:10:21","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:10:21","slug":"stray-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/21\/stray-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Stray (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the tradition of films like \u201cThe Bad Seed\u201d and \u201cDevil in the Flesh,\u201d Gabrielle Stone stars as Jennifer Stone, a young girl who happens upon a small town one fateful day. Alluring and often enigmatic, Jennifer manages to build the good will of a fellow traveler, and begins establishing herself in the small town of Chestnut Hill. Jennifer will do whatever it takes to build the life she wants, including lying, stealing, and murdering just about anyone. \u201cStray\u201d is mostly a psychological thriller focusing on this truly complex but twisted antagonist who is oddly alluring but incredibly slimy from the first moment we meet her.<\/p>\n

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Gabrielle Stone does a bang up job portraying this black widow-like killer who has no qualms about murdering whenever she can. The cast are all very good working well off of star Stone, including Arita Trahan. Director and writer Nena Eskridge does a very good job of setting the character Jennifer up and exploring how she manages to slide in to the town of Chestnut Hill like a snake and slowly interrupt the lives of potential victims. Eventually when Jennifer meets a handsome bartender she acquires a job at his bar and restaurant, and begins scheming to take him from his girlfriend. Just her luck within this small town he and his girlfriend have a sordid past which include adultery and mistrust.<\/p>\n

This allows Jennifer to do whatever she can to ensnare Greg, all the while people around town end begin turning up dead. Not to mention the man Jennifer escaped from in the prologue is still hot on her heels. Sadly, \u201cStray\u201d does fall apart by the third act where events involving a newborn baby, and Jennifer\u2019s descent in to depression never amount to any kind of respectable suspense or tension. All things considered, though, Nena Eskridge\u2019s first directorial outing is very good with a nice episodic thriller that\u2019s tense, and vicious, and feels like something you\u2019d see on the Lifetime Channel during the afternoon. That\u2019s not a slight at all, as \u201cStray\u201d is an entertaining dark thriller and left me interested in what Nena Eskridge will have to offer audiences down the road.<\/p>\n