''Stag'' is a 1997 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

, directed by Gavin Wilding, made for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and later released theatrically after drawing large ratings. ''Stag'' features an ensemble cast headed by

Mario Van Peebles Mario Van Peebles (born January 15, 1957) is an American film director and actor best known for directing and starring in ''New Jack City'' in 1991 and '' USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage'' in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Va ...

, Andrew McCarthy, Kevin Dillon, Taylor Dayne, John Stockwell, William McNamara, John Henson, Jerry Stiller and Ben Gazzara. It was produced by

Lions Gate Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...

Plot

At Ken's bachelor party, a group of men are partying with two

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

sisters named Serena ( Taylor Dayne) and Kelly (Jenny McShane). Serena steals one of the men and makes love to him, while a group of men party with her sister Kelly. Kelly accidentally falls onto the stone floor and dies. Another person, her bodyguard, also dies in an accident. Arriving and witnessing the accidental deaths of Kelly and her bodyguard, Serena begins crying and confronts a group of men, who give a weak apology. Two of the men then kidnap Serena and hold her hostage upstairs. A group of men cover their tracks and eliminate the bodies of the two deceased people. A rescuer frees Serena, but he and Serena are kidnapped by their captors. He and Serena are later rescued. Grabbing the two guns in her hands, Serena shoots and murders her kidnappers. The reason the wild party began was to turn the tables on Ken, who had always made others the subject of his pranks.

Cast

* Andrew McCarthy * Kevin Dillon * Taylor Dayne * John Stockwell * William McNamara * John Henson * Jerry Stiller * Ben Gazzara

Release

''Stag'' premiered on

in June 1997.

Reception

Brendan Kelly of '' Variety'' called it "an efficient psychological thriller" that "becomes a tad predictable".

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for ''The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' called it "stagey, badly written, and mind-numbingly predictable". ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' rated it 2/4 stars and called it "a sometimes gripping, sometimes frustrating suspense drama". Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called it "relentlessly obvious and tedious". It has been compared to 1998's ''

Very Bad Things ''Very Bad Things'' is a 1998 American black comedy film written and directed by Peter Berg in his feature film directorial debut and starring Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, Christian Slater, Leland Orser, Kobe Tai and Je ...

'', a film which also revolves around the death of a stripper at a bachelor party. The producers of ''Very Bad Things'' were not aware of ''Stag'' while the movie was being written. By the time ''Very Bad Things'' began being financed, the producers had found out about ''Stag'', and changes were made to the script to make it less similar.

References

External links

* * 1997 films 1990s psychological thriller films American psychological thriller films HBO Films films Lionsgate films Films about striptease Films produced by John Dunning 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{psychological-thriller-film-stub