Like 2022’s Barbarian (which, as featured in the marketing, this movie shares a producer in Roy Lee), Strange Darling is a thriller that’s best going in knowing nearly nothing at all. Ideally, if I could, the review would simply be the sentence “Go see it.” It’s a cat-and-mouse thriller where you’re never exactly certain which one is which.
Strange Darling is divided into six chapters and — according to the opening narration — is a fictional retelling of the final recorded events of a serial killer’s murder spree across Oregon. From there, the movie starts in Chapter 3, where we’re “introduced” to our two central characters: a bloodied woman — credited as The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) — and her pursuer: a man credited as The Demon (Kyle Gallner). From there, the movie jumps back and forth in time as we find out more about the pair’s initial meeting as an attempted one-night stand, the chase itself, and their eventual fates. To say any more would be giving too much away.
Telling a non-linear story is definitely not a new idea, and Strange Darling isn’t even the first movie to do it in the last six months. However, writer-director JT Mollner finds a fresh spin on it through a fantastic script, tackling the topics of female sexual agency and power dynamics with a surprising amount of depth and playfulness that neither undersells the seriousness of the subjects nor feels like it crosses a line for exploitation’s sake.
“There are few things more satisfying than a thriller that truly leaves you guessing, and Strange Darling is one of the best to do it in recent memory.”
Strange Darling frequently hides crucial information until the last minute and halts momentum on a dime, constantly changing our feelings about both characters with each new reveal. Not since Parasite have I seen a movie that threw me for a loop this often and rarely did it ever feel frustrating.
It’s all courtesy of the film’s two leads. Kyle Gallner has grown into a modern scream king over the past decade, and he truly comes into his own here. However, it’s Willa Fitzgerald who delivers one of the best performances of the year in Strange Darling and one I think horror fans will talk about for years. A small shoutout should also go to screen legends Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. in small but crucial supporting roles as a pair of old hippies who get caught up in the situation. Sidenote: A scene where the elders eat breakfast together features a breakfast that hilariously shifts from delicious to disgusting as more and more ingredients keep getting added.
Leaving me equally as surprised as the script was how stunning the movie looks. The movie was shot entirely on 35mm film captured by first-time director of photography Giovanni Ribisi. Yes, THAT Giovanni Ribisi. While the daylight sequences are bright and lush, the flashbacks have this gorgeous colour palette of intense red and blues that reflect the intensity of the pair’s early, sexually-charged conversations. It’s a look that feels inspired by equal parts 70s Giallo films, as it does Natural Born Killers.
There are few things more satisfying than a thriller that truly leaves you guessing, and Strange Darling is one of the best to do it in recent memory. It’s a brutal, grimy ride that never lets up from the word go. Mollner, Gallner and Fitzgerald immediately cement themselves as ones to watch in the future and I’m already excited to rewatch it to see how many clues were already there to begin with. Just take my word for it.
