Stay (2025) review – Hulu’s latest horror offering falls flat

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We are taking a look at a brand new horror movie today that is exclusive to Hulu. Stay is the feature length debut of director Jas Summers and it follows the story of a soon to be divorced couple who begin experiencing supernatural happenings in their home.

Movie Making is Extremely Hard…

Now, let me just clarify something. I’m a pretty cynical guy and I am not exactly easy to please. I’ve watched too many horror movies to just rave about everything I come across. When you start a horror movie review website, the only thing you really have to market about yourself is your honesty. Sometimes, I like to deliver that honesty with a bullet to really drive home my point.

As this website became more popular, however, I began conversing with people actually involved in making horror movies. Directors, producers, writers, actors etc. Whether it was to ask me to check out their movie or just to thank me for including them in a review, a list, etc.

The more I chatted with these people, the more I realised how damn hard they work to make films. It never stops, even when the cameras stop rolling there is still promotion to do. These people pour their heart and soul into bringing their vision to life. Now, I wouldn’t say that realisation makes it harder to criticise bad movies but it makes me feel a lot worse about doing it. Particularly when its a smaller production.

But….

With that being said, I can’t lie. My honesty is my own personal contribution to the horror community and that’s what readers of sites like mine expect. Stay is a film that I can appreciate for its vision but can’t possibly begin to say is good.

There are things that Summers does right but the overall package is woefully lacking. I had immense hopes that there would be plenty to praise here because we badly need horror from different perspectives but this is so generic and flawed.

The film kicks off with our two lovers basically dripping all over each other like teens. Miles (Mo McRae) is an MMA fighter who has been whupping ass at the weekends and running a gym during the week. Kiara is an expert in African spiritualism and has written a massively successful book on the subject. Life is good and the couple seem like a perfect match.

Then, all of a sudden, something happens and they are at each other’s throats and preparing for imminent divorce. That’s when things really start to go wrong for Kiara (Megalyn Echikunwoke), as she begins experiencing strange visions. It is clear that something is haunting their home but what could it be?

Is it a horror film or messy relationship drama?

First thing’s first, this movie is all over the place both thematically and in presentation. Expecting an all out horror is going to leave you very disappointed, particularly where Hulu’s Huluween season is concerned. This is far more of a drama than anything else. Expect cheesy snuggling, dancing in front of warmly lit windows, and arguing about narcissism.

“Expecting an all out horror is going to leave you very disappointed, particularly where Hulu’s Huluween season is concerned. This is far more of a drama than anything else.”

There’s an actual reason for why our lead couple’s relationship is suddenly on the rocks. It is hinted at earlier on but not elaborated on fully until the end. Needless to say, Stay’s non-linear timeline will probably confuse viewers because it is really not executed all that well.

This leads to the film feeling a bit messy as we are just dumped in to an already difficult situation. It also robs the story of emotional resonance as who the hell wants to root for a couple that won’t stop arguing? We have no reason to pity this couple that had it all but couldn’t chill the fuck out to enjoy it.

From there on out, the timeline bounces around mercilessly between the past and the present. We have little hints at how the couple’s relationship started, pointless scenes of Miles boxing that add nothing, and a whole lot of squabbling.

This drama stuff is eerily reminiscent of the worst crimes of Tubi. Never fear, though, because here comes some extremely generic supernatural horror stuff to make it even worse. Things that go bump in the night, spooky mirrors, scary shadows etc. The same type of stuff that you have seen a million times before.

Long on arguments, short on scares

The horror is never scary or even all that interesting. It is simply used as a form of deliberate narrative misdirection to keep you guessing and potentially stop you from realising that you actually chose to watch a movie about a divorcing couple packing up a house.

“This is a story that could have been told in under half an hour but, instead, it lasts over 80 minutes… Stay has a serious stammer.”

The house is apparently a sado-masochist too because it decides to lock the bickering pair inside, forcing them to find a way out through reconnecting with themselves. This is where the big reveal comes in but you will have already guessed it by that point and decided that you don’t care.

It is so impressively generic and derivative that it comes as something of a surprise when Summers suddenly explores some West African folklore stuff that’s actually quite interesting. Voodoo is nothing new in horror but I would have loved to have seen Stay really lean into it in a bigger way.

Push aside the generic haunted house stuff that we have seen a million times before and dive both feet first into that. Again, we need new authentic perspectives in horror. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all just thrown in to further pad out the runtime. There’s a distinct sense that Summers is overextending the plot and that is a big problem.

“Push aside the generic haunted house stuff that we have seen a million times before and dive both feet first into that. We need new authentic perspectives in horror.”

This is a story that could have been told in under half an hour but, instead, it lasts over 80 minutes. This means that arguments are protracted, flashbacks are repetitive, and the story mulls over the same point repeatedly. Stay has a serious stammer and it gets very difficult to stay focused as the movie repeats itself over and over.

A crisis of consistency

I felt a little uneven about the cinematography. There are times when Stay feels like the lowliest of lowly Tubi movies. There are other times where I can see the vision and it looks pretty decent. There’s heavy use of warm lighting and many scenes have an almost thick, dream-like, quality. I did enjoy some of the framing, here and there, as well.

A shot of Kiara getting into the bath filmed through the reflection of a foggy mirror is fairly well done, for example. Other times, it’s just extremely generic and, dare I say it, horribly cheesy. The flash-backs are universally terrible and eye roll inducing.

The script is a huge problem. Humans don’t talk like this. I seriously wonder whether writers are padding screenplays using AI, nowadays. I should probably add, as well, that these guys are spreading fake reviews about this movie all over the place. Even some of the comments on the trailer look extremely suspicious.

I thought Mo McRae was actually really good as Miles. He didn’t ever seem to overdo anything and felt like a real person. Megalyn Echikunwoke was a bit more uneven. She was tasked with doing a lot of heavy lifting and without an experienced director it can be tough to keep a character consistent. Megalyn does have strong moments, though.

I seriously disliked the sound production. There’s something about a poorly mixed soundtrack playing repeatedly that really lends a feeling of low budget naffness to any movie. There’s a lot of low volume talking as well which gets very annoying.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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