The Quibi Horror Series You Never Watched Is Back, In Actual Movie Form
Once upon a time, a bunch of disgustingly wealthy entertainment executives got together with a dream — a dream that answers the question, "What if people consumed film and TV in short segments like a TikTok playlist, but on a brand new platform that no one is going to pay to use with a bananas ridiculous name?" The result was Quibi, a short-form streaming platform that went as quickly as it came, shutting down after only seven months of operation and hemorrhaging over a billion dollars from investors.
The downfall of Quibi rivals that of fellow colossal "good idea on paper but never gonna happen in execution" entertainment failure, MoviePass, but came with the depressing caveat that Quibi actually produced a huge chunk of *content* that was now at risk of being drop-kicked into the unstreamable void of tax write-off and nothingness unless other platforms stepped in to save them. Fortunately, some of the best projects to come from Quibi have found homes elsewhere, like "The Most Dangerous Game" series moving to The Roku Channel. And now, the horror series "The Stranger," which went largely unseen, is being recut into a feature-length movie for Hulu.
Written and directed by Veena Sud ("The Lie," "Seven Seconds," "The Killing"), "The Stranger" stars genre favorite Maika Monroe ("It Follows," "The Guest," "Longlegs"), Dane DeHaan ("The Staircase," "Oppenheimer), and Avan Jogia ("Now Apocalypse," "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City"), in an unsettling thriller about a rideshare driver named Clare (Monroe) who is thrust into a 12-hour fight for her life after she picks up Carl (DeHaan), the passenger from hell. The film's official press release states, "The thriller takes you on an escalating journey that underscores the power of justified female rage and vengeance."
How The Stranger was saved from Quibi
As easy as it is to dunk on Quibi, the app was a bit ahead of its time ... by about three years. Last year I wrote about how TikTok has fundamentally changed the way an overwhelming number of people consume media, with plenty of people willingly watching TV shows and movies in bite-sized segments, or a 50-part series where a woman talks about her pathological liar of an ex-husband. "The Stranger" was originally released on Quibi in 13 segments, with each episode representing an hour of the rideshare travel time. The new feature version is being released with a runtime of 1 hour and 37 minutes. Veena Sud released a personal statement with the announcement saying:
"For artists and creatives in the industry, the right to own one's work has been a decades-long struggle. [...] Copyright ownership allows the artist to continue to advocate for projects we've poured our blood, sweat, and tears into when others, such as studios and distributors, have moved on. It keeps the work alive in the face of a 'market' that is focused on making as much money as possible and sacrificing quality artistic storytelling."
If Quibi did one thing right, it was offering creatives the copyright ownership of their projects, which is why we are now able to see "The Stranger" long after Quibi's demise. "Filmmakers and creators who are able to tell stories that may not survive a fickle marketplace must have alternate ways to get our work out in a world that's hungry for it. And, the world is hungry for good material," Sud wrote. "Although the courageous and cool Quibi experiment didn't work, I know my film is important to get out there. It's a story about justified female rage and vengeance in this current moment where we as women have so much to be angry about. A fitting story for today's world."
"The Stranger" arrives on Hulu on April 15, 2024.