The Strays Ending Explained: What Is The Terrible Secret That Neve Hides
Written and directed by Nathaniel Martello-White, in his directorial debut, The Strays is a British horror thriller film on Netflix that follows Neve, who has a peaceful suburban life with her family and a successful job at a private school. But her perfect and privileged life begins to unravel after the arrival of two strangers in her quiet community. He slowly begins to doubt his sanity and though he turns to his family and friends for help, they refuse to believe him. In the first few minutes of The Strays, Cheryl complains on the phone about her debts and how little she has. Tired of that life, she packs her bags and leaves her small apartment, but what else has she left behind? Years later, she becomes Neve, she has everything she dreamed of and she works hard to keep it.
The Strays Review: The Story Plot
The protagonist of this story is Cheryl (Ashley Madekwe), a black woman dissatisfied with her life who decides – as we see in the prologue – to leave everything and everyone to start over. We find her again about twenty years later, mother of a family – who calls herself Snow – in an upper-class suburb, at the center of the social life of a community where they are all white and rich. If her everyday life is perfect – between breakfasts with friends, the job of vice principal of a prestigious private college, and the organization of a charity gala – the memory of what she has abandoned seems to resurface disturbingly. When an unknown black man and girl arrive in the neighborhood, approaching both of his children – Sebastian (Samuel Paul Small) and Mary (Maria Almeida) – things start to go downhill for Neve, amidst disturbing visions that seem to endanger even his sanity.
The plot is divided into 4 chapters, alternating from the corners of the main characters. Starting with Nef (actress Ashley Madekwe), a black mother who has changed herself to look like a white person who has a good job position. She began to see two black men and women hanging out in a town near her family. In this city, only she was black before. The film presents that she begins to suffer from various symptoms of itchy head scratching and Easy loss of consciousness leaving a lot of suspicions to the audience all the time The film tells the first half hour of Neff’s chapter. before revealing the important secrets of the story and then cutting to Chapter 2. It’s another corner of the story of two black brothers that Neff saw. And the audience will see another side of the story in the first chapter. What did Neff see, and think was the truth? Before cutting back to the story of Neff again by telling the whole story for us to understand and reveals Neff’s true identity Which is why the culmination of the story is a quiet, terrifying house-thriller with no loud, no gore. But it gives a thrilling feeling that something bad will come.
Ending Explained: What Is The Terrible Secret That Neve Hides?
A few days before the charity gala that Neve has been planning for a long time, two young men of African descent arrive in the community and approach the elegant woman’s family. Although they introduce themselves as Marvin and Abigail, their real names are Carl and Dione, the children Cheryl abandoned. The young man applies for a job as a janitor at the school where Neve is the assistant principal and tries to gain the trust of Sebastián, the eldest son of the protagonist of The Strays. Meanwhile, Dione gets a job in the office of Ian, Cheryl’s husband, and befriends Maria.
Carl and Dione realize that their brothers have everything they were denied, which fuels their resentment and motivates them to continue with their plans. What do they seek? Revenge? Get your mother back? Have the family and life you always dreamed of? Seeing them at their gala, Neve confronts them and tries to throw them out, but they reveal their identity. After the disastrous meeting, the protagonist of The Strays talks with her family to remedy the damage. She explains to them that she did not want to leave her children, but that she had no choice if she wanted to escape from her ex-partner, who was someone very dangerous.
Later, he meets with Carl and Dione, apologizes for abandoning them, gives them a large sum of money to return to London, and promises they will find a way to fix everything once his family processes his past. When calm seems to return to Neve’s house, Carl and Dione show up one night ready to torture her mother and her perfect family. After disposing of the hostages’ phones, they force them to order Chinese food to celebrate Dione’s birthday.
Neve, Ian, and their children try to stick together, but that ends when Carl reveals that Cheryl paid them to leave. While waiting for the delivery, Carl takes Ian to the home gym and forces him to lift too much weight, causing him to get crushed by the weights. At that moment, the delivery man arrives, and Neve goes out for the food. As Carl continues in the gym she offers to pay for the food. Before going back out her, she tells them that she loves that they are together, that they will talk about it, and that she hopes they can forgive her. However, Neve does not return. When Carl comes out and asks for his mother, the motorcycle engine is heard, and the four brothers understand that his mother has abandoned them. Will the four of them team up to track down their mom?
