Stuck
2023 · 9m · Italia
Directed by David A. Roncone
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Sophia is a fearful young woman who accidentally lets loose a demonic entity while moving into her new house. She must confront the evil entity, which reflects her personal struggle against insecurity.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Demon-as-metaphor-for-anxiety is exactly the kind of well-meaning literary horror that gets programmed to death; Roncone needed to either lean into the absurdity of that conceit or abandon it entirely, and instead he splits the difference into competent blandness.
The film demonstrates disciplined control over its tonal register and visual grammar, situating itself soundly in the contemporary psychological horror lineage—though it lacks the formal innovation or narrative surprise that would elevate it beyond assured craftsmanship into genuine distinction.
There's real restraint in how Roncone uses negative space and silence to let Sophia's performance breathe; that choice to let the entity remain mostly unseen until the final confrontation does more work than the demon design itself, and that economy of revelation is what makes the 9 minutes land.