The Cast of 'Strung' is Gorgeous. The Script? Not So Much. (Review of Strung 2026)

Strung (2026) Review

Dir. Malcolm Lee

2/5 ⭐

I hate giving reviews like this to movies I genuinely wanted to love, but I have some real issues with this film, starting with the marketing. The trailers positioned this as a horror film, largely due to the little girl who's in the mask (it's giving Us or Them), but instead, the movie is more like an erotic, psychological thriller. That distinction matters, and the mismatch in expectations didn't help.

Strung is a 2026 movie streaming on Peacock, directed by Malcolm Lee, who is probably most famous for his The Best Man franchise. It is a Blumhouse and Tyler Perry collaboration in production, and it was written by Alan McElroy. The film stars Chlöe Bailey as Layla, a promising young violinist who gets a job working as a musical tutor slash nanny for an affluent Black family led by matriarch Lynn Whitfield, and her cold and detached daughter, Imani, played by Anna Diop.

The first scenes of the film are actually quite haunting and whisper echoes of films like Black Swan.  Chlöe Bailey delivers in this brief moment as a violin virtuoso being haunted as a means of expressing her fear of failure.

Enter BFF Jasmine, played by fellow actress/singer Coco Jones. Fun fact: the two acted together previously in the Disney Channel classic Let It Shine. Jasmine convinces the studious and socially awkward Layla to go clubbing. From there, it seems like Layla's life is taking a turn for the better. She gets offered a well-paying job and it seems like life is turning around for her. But as Jasmine warns, "Rich people are freaky," and all is not as it seems with her new employers.

The scenery is gorgeous and the storyline is serviceable, but the film will likely draw comparisons to The Housemaid. Unfortunately, no one in this cast brings the level of commanding performance that Amanda Seyfried delivered in that film (she saves that movie). That's not to say the acting in Strung is bad across the board, but the writing lets everyone down.

Chlöe's performance is uneven at times. Her character is written as shy and skittish, but that translates into some overacting, such as excessive eye work and facial twitching that I found more distracting than effective. There's also a voiceover sequence where she's addressing two children as they leave a classroom, and it's painfully obvious it was recorded as an ADR fix after the fact. The audio does not sync with her mouth at all, and it pulls you right out of the film.

There's some genuinely interesting camera work early on that unfortunately disappears for the rest of the movie, which is a real missed opportunity. And perhaps the biggest issue is pacing: her character is rushed through plot points far faster than our understanding of her would justify. Her decisions don't feel earned.

The film also squanders some of its more compelling threads. The sexual tension between Layla and Imani is never fully rationalized and goes nowhere, and Layla's backstory needed more development to make her bond with young protégée Zuri (Romy Woods) actually resonate. These are the moments that could have elevated the film, and they're left on the table.

However, despite its flaws, Strung is a perfectly serviceable streaming watch. Solid soundtrack, lush costuming, and cinematography that shines before the final act. The cast is gorgeous to look at, and I will never not celebrate Chlöe Bailey for continuing to rock her locs and showcase the versatility of Black natural hair.

We're still waiting for Chlöe to get that star-turn script that truly catapults her acting career (we almost got it with Amazon's Swarm). But Strung will find its audience, and they'll be talking about it for a week or two. In the streaming world, that's honestly enough.

Shaquanna “Quanna” Stevens is a film critic, educator, and storyteller who reviews films through the lens of culture, representation, and genre. She runs Her Reel Review, where she explores horror, romance, fantasy, and films by Black creators. When she’s not writing or filming reviews, she teaches English IV Honors and AP Literature, advises student filmmakers, and helps young creatives develop their voices.