Stay Review: Huluween Delivers a Smart but Slow-Paced Haunted House Horror

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Jas Summers wrote and directed *Stay*, a film that skillfully combines the tropes of haunted house stories, supernatural thrillers, and emotionally powerful family dramas. It’s a more sophisticated take on the genre, arriving just in time for the season. *Stay* blends African spiritual beliefs with classic ghost stories and the character-driven style of independent films from a bygone era, creating a surreal and thought-provoking experience. The film deeply explores relationships, family bonds, the pain of loss, and the possibility of healing through confronting grief.

Kiara, a writer and expert in African spirituality, and Miles, a former MMA fighter, were once deeply in love and built a life together in their perfect home. Years later, their marriage has fallen apart, and they’re divorcing. As they prepare to sell the house and move on, they find themselves trapped inside, unable to leave. Forced to confront their hidden pain, unspoken resentments, and even supernatural forces, Kiara and Miles must battle their inner demons to save their relationship – and themselves.

Stay’s Haunted House Is Horrifying – With Good Cause

Stay is a deeply unsettling and dreamlike look at the pain and struggles within a failing relationship. The performances from Summers and the two leads evoke the style of Tennessee Williams, as they powerfully convey the couple’s rapid emotional and mental decline during their divorce. The dialogue is sparse and strangely detached, reminiscent of old video game voice acting, but delivered with skill and intentionality. Combined with a limited color scheme of orange and blue, a shaky camera, unsettling sound design, and a haunting soundtrack, the film feels less like a traditional movie and more like a disturbing fever dream. It begins as a straightforward nightmare, but quickly transforms into something unexpected and challenges typical horror tropes.

The film *Stay* creates a similar unsettling atmosphere to classics like *The Haunting* (1963) through its fragmented editing, unusual camera angles, and a house that feels actively evil. Miles and Kiara find themselves trapped inside, with doors locking on their own, belongings scattered around, unbreakable windows, and no way to signal for help. The house subjects them to intense, frightening hallucinations, visions, and nightmares—some even manifesting as physical attacks, reminiscent of *The Evil Dead*. It also fills the house with strange buzzing and whirring sounds. Interestingly, despite all its supernatural power, the haunted house is often less volatile than the emotionally damaged, arguing, and grieving people within—a contrast that ultimately drives the story.

The story draws heavily on African spirituality – a rich source of supernatural stories and ideas that works perfectly with horror, especially haunted house narratives. An African goddess of death and rebirth appears throughout the story, manifesting in mirrors, glass, and ghostly visions, and performing symbolic rituals. Ultimately, Kiara’s ancestors become unexpectedly crucial in resolving both the supernatural and ordinary disturbances within the house.

The story’s spiritual elements fit well with the characters’ personalities and pasts, especially their emotional struggles. Kiara, a deeply troubled African spiritualist with a doctorate, is the one who perceives the symbols and suffers the most intense hallucinations, making her highly sensitive to the supernatural. Her husband, Miles, is a former fighter who hides his emotions and focuses on the material world, so he doesn’t see what Kiara does, but still experiences the strange occurrences. This difference creates tension, and surprisingly, the ghostly events sometimes offer a welcome distraction from the couple’s intense and unhappy relationship.

Stay Depicts a Couple, a House and a Color Palette Divided

The film *Stay* utilizes a minimalist aesthetic – simple sets and a limited color scheme – to great effect. It powerfully contrasts warm, sepia-toned flashbacks of a happy marriage, accompanied by smooth jazz, with cold, bleak, blue-grey scenes of a disturbing present. These jarring shifts create a haunting atmosphere, blending supernatural horror with the quiet desperation of a troubled home life. Both the memories and the nightmares are equally unsettling. *Stay* is a visually and thematically dark film that often feels more like an atmospheric study or a series of impressions than a traditional, straightforward story. It unfolds as a collection of brief scenes and moments, constantly moving between idyllic memories and vivid, stark nightmares.

Visually, this film is striking, though deliberately unsettling. The director relies on a very limited palette – oranges, golds, browns, blues, and indigo – punctuated by stark white and deep black. It’s not just aesthetic; the warm tones immediately suggest happier memories, African traditions, or even something otherworldly, while the cool blues signal dread, depression, and danger. Even in seemingly normal scenes, that color scheme holds firm. It mirrors the fractured relationship of the main characters, creating a constant sense of unease. And when the film unexpectedly drains to grayscale, all bets are off. That’s when the true horror begins, and the characters are forced to grapple with their deepest fears – both literally and figuratively. It’s a bold choice that really gets under your skin.

The film *Stay* boasts strong elements: compelling themes, a small but dedicated cast delivering unsettling performances, beautiful visuals, and an intriguing premise rooted in African tribal history, spiritualism, and folklore. It also thoughtfully explores difficult topics like depression, self-loathing, and their impact on relationships and mental wellbeing. However, *Stay* is an unconventional film that sometimes struggles with its own approach. Certain scenes feel slow and drawn out, and while the film excels at creating a sense of dread and internal conflict, this often comes at the cost of a clear, forward-moving story.

This Supernatural Thriller Says a Lot With Very Little — For Better and For Worse

The movie *Stay* feels like a series of connected moments, building on past events, present happenings, strange occurrences, and emotional tension, often circling back to memories and revelations. This structure isn’t inherently flawed – many classic dramas and even minimalist indie films have successfully used it. *Stay* clearly aimed for this approach, including all the necessary components. However, the film lacks impact because it’s too subtle, the story unfolds slowly without a clear direction, and it prioritizes creating a mood over telling a compelling story.

The movie doesn’t really gain momentum until Kiara and Miles start confronting the spirits, and even then, it’s past the halfway point. While horror and ritualistic practices are central to the story, the film also delves into African ancestor worship and spirituality – particularly Kiara’s strong female lineage and their connection to sacred places. This exploration effectively reveals the deep-seated tragedy fueling the couple’s struggles and unraveling relationship, fitting nicely within the traditions of folk horror and haunted house stories.

Despite having a promising story and interesting ideas, “Stay” starts slowly and can feel confining for viewers, much like the characters within it. However, the film ultimately succeeds as a touching and personal exploration of human fragility, offering a hopeful and unique take on the classic haunted house story. While the first half is a bit of a struggle, the meaningful and satisfying conclusion makes the entire experience worthwhile.

Stay is now streaming on Hulu.

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2025-10-09 05:07