You know how, instead of condemning sexual violence, some people patronizingly advise women to go home early, move in groups for safety, and make sure to lock the door for safety? Stree takes this usual advice and uses it instead as fictional ritual practices for the men in the small town of Chanderi to escape from the titular spirit. It’s a rather cheeky inversion, one that resolves in a familiar, though understandable, way. While Stree takes a more comedic, jumpscare approach, it does rightly point out that if half of the population acted like this spirit, then the fear the other half feels would undeniably be reasonable.

Mild spoilers! I love that to solve everything, the whole town had to learn from the Stree’s story.