Stay poster

Stay (2005)

Film · 1h 39m · Rated R

Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A psychiatrist's reality unravels while a suicidal patient's past becomes a tangled, melancholy mystery.

Suspenseful and tense. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Prime Video and YouTube (free).

Stay parents guide

Of what we could confirm, nothing runs past an R: some violence and some strong language.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
No gore
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
None flagged
It is rated R, so treat our zero as unconfirmed.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Stay scary?
Only a little. Stay has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is Stay?
No gore and some violence. Squeamish viewers are fine here.
What is Stay rated, and is it OK for kids?
Some strong language. The R is earned, so not for kids.

What is Stay about?

Psychiatrist Sam Foster has a new patient, Henry Letham, who claims to be suicidal. In trying to diagnose him, Sam visits Henry's prior therapist and also finds Henry's mother -- even though Henry has said that he murdered both of his parents. As reality starts to contradict fact, Sam spirals into an unstable mental state. Then he finds a clue as to how and when Henry may try to kill himself, and races to try to stop him.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves the ending open to interpretation.

Cast and crew

Directed byMarc Forster
StarringEwan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling, Kate Burton, Elizabeth Reaser, Bob Hoskins

More like Stay

Stay is on our Mystery on Prime Video list.

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Lists with the same feel: Melancholy.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.