TIFF 2024 REVIEW: ‘The Shadow Strays’ Is A Grandly Vicious Time

For hardcore, intense action sequences that take the breath away and have a hint of meanness to them, look no further than writer/director Timo Tjahjanto. For fans of his work, The Shadow Strays continues to prove Tjahjanto’s mad contributions to the action sphere. Underneath the near non-stop action sequences is a humanity trying to crawl out from underneath a sea of death and destruction. With an eye on trying to find meaning amidst the pain, The Shadow Strays shows the uphill battle of rising above circumstances thrust upon someone wanting more. Just with a heck of a lot of blood, violence, and viscera.

An explosively bloody opener introduces audiences to The Shadow, a collective of killers based all over the world who are hired to annihilate their target, regardless of personal ties or emotions. After adolescent assassin Codename 13 (Aurora Ribero) mucks things up on a mission, her mentor Umbra (Hana Malasan) exiles her to Jakarta, Indonesia, to essentially reflect and keep her head low until The Shadow thinks the young woman is ready to go back out into the field again.

13 is incredibly stubborn and ruled by emotion, which makes her a liability. However, with this pent-up energy, she’s itching to do something and hones in on a young, newly orphaned boy, Monji. An almost immediate bond forms between the two, with 13 seeing parts of herself in the boy. But when Monji goes missing, and the local crime syndicate sends a low-level henchman to clean up after themselves, 13 impulsively gets involved with something larger than herself.

The Shadow Strays is an action-packed bloodfest that seldom relents from beginning to end. Brief scenes where action has taken a pause highlight silent moments of character growth but also give the audience a chance to breathe. When violence erupts, Tjahjanto and the team know how to make it hit. Brutal and fierce, each action sequence feels raw and unfiltered, a feat that seems impossible these days. But Tjahjanto nails it yet again.

Aurora Ribero, as 13, is hard to look away from. Her performance is intense and permeates, with her gaze belying her anger when she locks eyes with her enemies. In pursuit of Monji, she will stop at nothing to eradicate anyone in her way, even if it means losing her life in the process. As an action star and actor, The Shadow Strays proves Ribero’s star power and magnetism.

As her mentor, Hana Malasan’s Umbra is who 13 may become one day. Calm, cool, and collected, Umbra carries herself with poise and precision. Malasan infuses her Umbra with nuance as she undergoes challenges that will shake her to the core. Umbra goes on a separate journey from 13, but with age and generational gaps, both ultimately arrive at different conclusions. This ultimately makes their reunion an emotionally turbulent experience that both actors play to the nth degree.

The violence cannot be wrought or felt as completely and utterly deserved without worthy villains. In The Shadow Strays, there are no redeemable qualities to be found. The villains who occupy the world of the film are larger than life, each so enraptured with their power that they become almost comedically evil caricatures in the process. The commitment of all the actors here is commendable, and you can tell they were having a blast acting out the epitome of evil onscreen. And while 13 is not a saint, her mission gives her the necessary goodness to have audiences immediately on her side.

The Shadow Strays is let down by its rather generic storyline. It covers the “assassin with a soft spot for the weak” genre trope territory. With the story’s runtime, there’s also a lot of action to get through to reach the end game of this simple premise. The bleakness of The Shadow Strays and its unrelenting physical violence keep the story beats from feeling predictable, with shocking injuries and deaths that will have action fans forgiving the weaker story.

Rather than operating as a standalone, The Shadow Strays also leaves off with an opening to future sequels. A mid-credits scene reveals a familiar face, which should excite fans of previous Tjahjanto films upon sight. While the film itself would have been stronger without the setup, with all the groundwork done to build up The Shadow organization, curiosity will be piqued.

Tjahjanto proves yet again that he is an avid fan and creator of action-genre films. With The Shadow Strays, the action outdoes itself, with enough blood and violence to satisfy. While the story itself is old hat, Aurora Ribero’s 13 leaves a lasting impression that will carry over into future sequels should Tjahjanto go that route. Either way, The Shadow Strays is a grandly vicious time.

The Shadow Strays played as a part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, and will stream exclusively on Netflix October 17, 2024.