In cinema—especially thrillers—book adaptations have long served as a goldmine for genre filmmakers. Tapping into the smartness of literary language often helps writers fill the creative gaps of visual storytelling with a kind of practised ease. But what does one make of a book adaptation in the AI age, when employing a real screenwriter might just mean hiring someone who fed the book into DeepSeek and spat out a compressed screenplay?
Surely, for a writer-director who’s been in the game this long, Chris Sivertson would’ve done more—read the novel, written the script—but his adaptation of Adele Parks’s 2016 Sunday Times bestseller feels like a patchwork of formulaic, occasionally laughable scenes slapped together on the editing table. Because the writing of “The Stranger in My Home” plays exactly like something churned out by a writer wrestling with a block on a lazy Sunday, with nothing else on the agenda.
Which isn’t to say this campy mushball of a narrative is entirely hollow. At its core, it grazes some meaty ideas: the heaviness of constructed kinship, the slow drip of everyday guilt and shame forced down women’s throats by patriarchy, and the theatrical madness of the phone-scrolling ‘delulu’ age.
But director Jeff Fisher does something bizarre with it all. Rather than shaping it into even a halfway psychodrama—with tone, atmosphere, or resolution, he directs it with a deadpan face and layers on as much aesthetic candyfloss as possible. Every scene is manicured to delusional extremes, even the climactic violence, leaving us with something teetering between a sleek B-movie and a tone-deaf live-action Disney drama.
The acting doesn’t help—wooden, overwrought, and occasionally grating—even Sophia Bush, the film’s inadvertent “sell,” drags under the weight of a story already flirting with the underworld. Which is to say: the film might land as someone’s guilty-pleasure pulp on a trashy afternoon. For all its narrative nosedives, its chaos is consistently dramatic—and if that’s your fix, be Fisher’s guest. Otherwise, this explainer may serve you as well as the film. Read on!
The Stranger in My Home (2025) Plot Summary and Synopsis:
Fifteen-year-old Katie is practising for the school cheerleading team under the supervision of her mother, Alison, who has stepped in as the substitute coach while the usual instructor, Simon, is away. But things take a nasty turn when school bully Veronica injures a teammate, Maddie, on purpose—an act meant to discredit Alison. Later, Veronica further harasses Katie by snatching her phone for the rest of the day, having seen her texting Jordan, an older man who helps around their home and is secretly her boyfriend.
Who shows up at Alison’s door?
That evening, a stranger named Tom Truby shows up at Alison and her husband Jeff’s door. He’s charming, polite, and deeply unsettling. He claims there was a mix-up at the time of Katie’s birth, and Katie is biologically his daughter. Like all of his children, she carries the BRCA gene mutation responsible for the cancer that recently killed his wife, Bella. He reveals that he and Bella raised Liv, who, in turn, is Alison and Jeff’s actual biological daughter. The couple is shaken to the core and promptly asks him to leave.
What do the DNA tests confirm?
But curiosity and fear get the better of them. They run a DNA test, and the results confirm everything Tom said. Katie has the gene and, like Bella, faces a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer. They tell Katie the truth bluntly. She’s devastated. Jeff and Alison urge her to keep it private and not tell anyone, especially her friends. But it seems Katie tells Jordan when they meet.
Tom returns, requesting a dinner to introduce both families. Alison, though overwhelmed, agrees. That night, the families gather: Tom, Liv, his son Callum, and his youngest daughter join Alison, Jeff, and Katie. Despite the tension, the evening flows into genuine, if cautious, conversation. At a party days later, Alison realises that Natasha—Veronica’s insufferable mother—has found out. At the high-school basketball game, Veronica sees Katie waving at Callum and instantly begins cozying up to her.
What does Alison reveal about Peter?
The next day, Alison asks Jeff to go shopping with her, hoping to reconnect. Jeff declines, claiming his writer’s block is finally lifting. Disappointed, Alison shops alone until she runs into Tom on the street. When he asks what she’s shopping for, she says it’s for her nephew Peter, who turns 20 today. They end up shopping together, and at the bookstore, Alison spots Liv picking out a pregnancy book.
Later, over coffee, Alison opens up. She confesses she got pregnant at 16 and gave birth to Peter, whom she gave up for adoption. She buys a gift for him every birthday, just to cope. That same day, Alison, Jeff, and Katie attend a family therapy session. The therapist zeroes in on the unspoken tension. Alison accuses Jeff of revealing Katie’s birth secret to Natasha. Jeff, in turn, confronts Alison about her tendency to defend Tom’s erratic behaviour as sensitivity. The therapist warns that they need alignment if they’re to support Katie’s mental health.
Overwhelmed, Alison texts Tom to meet. They meet near Callum’s school and share a kiss in the car. But Liv spots them and bolts. Panicked, Alison floods her with messages, eventually persuading her to meet at a café. The meeting is brief and uncomfortable. Liv leaves abruptly, without explaining the pregnancy book or acknowledging what she saw. When Alison returns home that night, Jeff surprises her with a cake for Peter’s birthday, who is guilty for forgetting. That night, Alison sleeps with Jeff out of emotional confusion.
The Stranger in My Home (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Where does Katie go?
Meanwhile, Katie tells her parents she’s staying at Maddie’s for a sleepover. But she sneaks out to celebrate Jordan’s birthday. Veronica and her friend spot her. Jordan tries to tell Katie something urgent, but she ignores him and dances seductively in the middle of the road as a birthday surprise. Katie doesn’t return home the next morning. Her parents, alarmed, search everywhere—including Maddie’s—but she’s nowhere.
They finally call the police. Detective Miriam Davies is assigned. Maddie soon confesses that Katie snuck out to be with Jordan. When Ali, Jeff, and Miriam reach Jordan’s home, Alison learns the truth: Jordan is Peter, the baby she gave up at 16. He admits he told Katie about their biological connection, and she fled, heartbroken. He assumes she went home and insists he hasn’t harmed her.
What is the truth about Tom?
Meanwhile, Katie wakes up in the basement of a wooden house. She desperately tries to escape. At Jordan’s house, he reveals Katie had a recorded confession from Veronica explaining why she hurt Maddie. Veronica, feeling cornered, admits she and her friend Brit had taken pictures of Katie and Jordan to blackmail her later, but claims no knowledge beyond that. Alison and Jeff dig deeper, combing through Liv’s social media. They find a recent picture of Liv with her mother—Bella—posted over a week ago.
Alarmed, they go to Liv’s home and are stunned to find Bella alive, well, pregnant, and married. Bella tells them she did have cancer, but survived it. The claim about the BRCA gene mutation is a total fabrication. She says Tom went off his meds, had mental health issues, and they separated long ago. Suddenly, everything clicks for Katie: she had texted Tom, he had come, drugged her, and hidden her in the basement of his countryside home.
How is Katie rescued?
Back at Alison’s house, the press surrounds the front lawn. One reporter begins sensationalising Katie’s disappearance. Alison tears into her on live TV. Liv sees this and is impressed. She decides to help with the rescue. Earlier, Alison had casually told Tom about a secret family sign—placing fingers on the ear—as a code for help. During the press conference, she uses the same gesture. Tom notices. He picks Alison up at St. Julien’s—the location hidden inside the bunny toy he’d given her.
Alison and Tom drive to his wooden cabin on the outskirts. There, Alison is horrified to find Katie unconscious and ill. They try to act their way out, but Tom sees through it. A physical struggle breaks out. At the climax, Jeff and Liv arrive. Tom attacks Jeff, but Liv pulls the trigger and kills him. Later, at school, Katie delivers a speech on the prompt “When did you lose your innocence?” She speaks about trauma, healing, and her mother. At home, the family reunites. Katie, Jordan, Liv, Jeff, and Alison share a moment of calm. Katie and Liv finally begin to warm up.
