Movie Spotlight: Stathamism

Patrick works in an office. He rides a Razor scooter in full business attire. His boss fires him in front of everyone. He is, in almost every measurable way, a perfect mark for a cult.

The cult worships Jason Statham. More specifically, it is built around Chev Chelios from Crank as a symbol of constant adrenaline and the complete elimination of self-doubt. It originated on Reddit. It is called Stathamism. And it is not entirely a joke.

Where the Idea Actually Came From

Director and co-writer Caden Ahmad traces the film to a collision of two things. The first was a drifting office worker as a type. The second was the Zizians, a real cult linked to multiple murders that reportedly grew out of a Harry Potter fan fiction community. That trajectory, from irony to ideology to real-world harm, gave Ahmad something to press against. “There was something profoundly unsettling to me,” he says, “about how something seemingly ironic or niche could evolve into a genuine belief system with real world consequences.” Pairing that trajectory with a parasocial obsession over a specific action film franchise was, in his words, the formula.

Why This Guy, Why This Cult

Inside the film, Stathamism is not actually about the actor. It is built from the mythology of Chev Chelios, who must maintain constant adrenaline or die. For Patrick and the followers he encounters, Chelios becomes a symbol of purpose and identity. Ahmad and co-director Aryan Chaudhari were deliberate about playing this straight. “Comedy starts to feel uncomfortable in an interesting way,” Ahmad says, “when the people inside the joke genuinely believe what they’re doing matters.” That gap between sincerity and absurdity is where the film lives.

Patrick and Lillith

The opening shot establishes the kind of man Patrick is: full office attire, children’s Razor scooter. Shortly after, his boss fires and publicly humiliates him. He is someone who has lost the shape of his own life. Lillith, played by Asia Lever, is not a villain. Ahmad is specific about this. She is “a genuinely good person who’s just brainwashed, constantly searching for something to fill an emotional void.” The two of them find each other in the particular way that people without direction sometimes do, and what follows is stranger and more serious than either expected.

A Visual Language That Shifts

The film was built to track Patrick’s interior state. Early scenes are grounded and nearly flat. As he moves deeper into Stathamism, particularly in the cabin sequence, anamorphic blur and heightened saturation pull the image into something uncanny. Ahmad worked closely with composer Ethan Rossman, who ended up developing a full original score after initial plans to use pre-existing tracks. “As the film came together, we realised it needed its own world,” Ahmad says. Some of the film’s best moments came from improvisation: one supporting character cries without moving her face, holding the shot long enough for the joke to curdle into something else entirely.

What to Know Before You Press Play

Ahmad’s advice is brief: “Don’t go into it trying to figure it out too early. It starts off ridiculous, but it slowly becomes something more unsettling. It’s about people trying to fill an emptiness with adrenaline, belief systems, and online communities that feel like meaning.” An earlier version of the film ended with Patrick arriving at a Waffle House. The ending they chose is harder to shake than that would have been.

Thriller

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Streaming now on Relay.