Stephen Review: A government-appointed psychiatrist investigating a self-confessed serial killer finds herself entangled in his mind as darker mysteries come to light that make her question whether he is truly guilty.
Stephen Movie Cast
Gomathi Shankar, Michael Thangadurai, Smruthi Venkat, Vadivel, Vijayashree, Shrisha
Stephen Netflix Director
Mithun Balaji
Stephen 2025 Writers
Mithun Balaji, Gomathi Shankar
The Netflix psychological thriller film has a runtime of 123 minutes.
Stephen Review
In Netflix’s newest psychological thriller Stephen, a psychiatrist and a police officer, find themselves on the brink of shock as they investigate a serial killer’s odd behaviour. The film showcases Stephen’s mental health and two dedicated members of law enforcement trying to get the right judgment for his crimes.
The film starts off strong and makes a good case for itself. Gomathi Shankar’s Stephen is complex and ambiguous, and it’s difficult to pinpoint who he is from the very first minute. The film does a good job of holding on to that tension, as we wonder whether Stephen really is an unhinged psychopath or a victim of the abuse that he has gone through.
However, from the very first minute, the film leaves breadcrumbs that not everything that we see in front of us is the truth and that our serial killer might just have something more up his sleeve. Are Michael and Seema simply pawns in a psychopath’s game? Viewers have to wait till the very last to figure that out, and I will say that the film does a great job in delivering that unsettling character to the viewers and creating a complex web around the answer.
The film does falter, though, in the execution. With long song sequences and some investigative moments that overstay their welcome, it takes far too long to get to the point, and I found myself losing interest at some points because it drones on and on about one point for minutes on end. This film really would’ve benefitted from a tighter runtime without the huge amount of fluff that pads the runtime. These moments dilute the film’s intensity and thrill and turn it into just another overlong thriller rather than something memorable.
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Despite whatever the film ends on, I also found it to lack the punch needed to make a psychological thriller tick. Although the twist ending is interesting, it’s nothing new. And sure, you feel unsettled thanks to Gomathi Shankar’s performance, but apart from that, the base story is generic and nothing new and will leave you rather disappointed. We have seen similar films done better previously, and this one just didn’t leave an impact when the credits rolled, probably because it took so long to give us something interesting.
With the bulk of the film focusing on the two uncovering the killer’s motivations and background, I think the chase gets a little stale after a while. At 123 minutes, you want things to move forward, but the film takes way too long to get to the point.
Final Thoughts
Stephen is fine, with a good twist in the end. But it’s the journey that gets a bit slow and repetitive after a while because, if you look at it in depth, the film generally repeats the same few things over and over again. Plus, the song and dance sequences are completely unnecessary. A shorter runtime could’ve probably fixed this, but alas.
What are your thoughts on Stephen? Let us know in the comments below!
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