Strung is a long, drawn-out mystery story with creepy undertones. There are some good women stars heading up this thriller, but they can’t save it from itself.

Strung stars Chloe Bailey as Laila, a violinist who keeps trying to get a spot in the Philharmonic orchestra. She has yet to make it when Audra (Lynn Whitfield) offers her a live-in job as music tutor (and general household help) for her granddaughter Zuri (Romy Woods). Zuri is learning piano.

Zuri wears an African warrior mask much of the time. That’s a little strange, but everything about the situation and the family is strange and creepy. The fact that Laila didn’t pick up on the creepiness and thought she’d hit the jackpot working for these rich people was a clue that things were going to go badly. They did.

It turns out the wealth in the family was earned by Zuri’s biological father, a famous rapper who was now dead. Zuri’s mother Imani (Anna Diop) was currently married to Marcus (Lucien Laviscount). Imani was very pregnant with Marcus’s baby. Audra was clearly the alpha dog in the family. She gave the orders.

Shortly before Laila was hired she spent the night in a hotel with a stranger she met in a diner. That stranger turned out to be Marcus. Yeah. Complicated.

The film had its mysteries and secrets, its scares, its dangers, and its strangeness factors but it dragged out too long and became tedious. There was plenty of greed, betrayal, and sex. Laila was the heroine who bonded with Zuri and saved the day, but the movie wants you to wonder if she really really really did. (Watch the credits.)

Jason Blum and Tyler Perry were the producers on this. It wasn’t as scary as a Blum House film, or as far-fetched as a Tyler Perry film. It was a little bit of each. I wanted to see the women in the cast in action and thought they all did a good job, including young Romy Woods.

You can see this one on Peacock.