I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Chris Stokes never lets you down. You know, when he and Marques Houston put together a Tubi Original, you’re about to get high entertainment, some level of sleaze, and the kind of viewing experience that quickly goes by. 

Sean Stevens (Nate Wyatt) is one of the world’s biggest pop stars. After being robbed and knocked out, he wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. That’s when he’s introduced to Stacy Freeman (Asia Holiday), who tells him he is in a safe place.” However, safety is an illusion; Stacy reveals herself as his biggest fan and claims she is the only one who can properly care for him. As you can imagine, she goes all Misery on him, keeping him locked up all for herself because she’s a megafan of his singing and makes him perform just for her. Sure, he only has one song, but come on. Just go with it.

Stacy isolates Sean from the outside world, gaslighting him by claiming his family doesn’t actually want him back, hoping to convince him that they only want to profit from his fame. While the world searches for the missing star, Stacy keeps him captive, driven by the fact that she has been waiting so long for this moment. Who can blame her when she builds a specialized room for Sean, not for his comfort, but as a studio where he is forced to write and record an entire album dedicated solely to her, Phantom of the Paradise-style.

Of course, like all Stokes’ projects, this ends with a cliffhanger, and I assume that the second — and third — films were all shot at the same time. I don’t see that as a bad thing. When a movie has a psychotic fake wedding ceremony, you can never hate on it.

I love that — like Italian exploitation directors of old — Stokes starts from a template, whether that be an erotic thriller, a child gone bad movie or, in this case, a kidnapping by someone with mental issues movie. Then, he fills his cast with people of color and goes from following the blueprint into his own thing, unafraid if things feel off or weird. These movies exist in their own universe, and if Tubi really were the mom-and-pop video store I dream it is, they would have their own shelf with his name above it. Kudos.

You can watch this on Tubi.