Sometimes a movie just comes out of nowhere, slaps ya silly, and leaves you stunned. I went from never having heard of Strange Darling or writer/director JT Mollner two weeks ago to now singing the praises of both to anyone who will listen. Strange Darling is the type of movie about which people often say “they don’t make ’em like that anymore.” Only they do. JT Mollner did.
That is to say, Strange Darling feels like a movie straight out of the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s made modern. The film opens with a title card that reads This movie was shot entirely on 35mm film (gorgeously, and by Giovanni Ribisi, no less). And then there’s the violent subject matter. A true crime text crawl narrated by Jason Patric sets the stage, recounting a serial killer’s Northwest spree and imparting that we are about to see a depiction of the killer’s final days. It brings to mind the way Tobe Hooper grounded The Texas Chain Saw Massacre using the same technique. And then we see The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) running toward the camera across a field, like Sally Hardesty running away in terror from Leatherface.
That Strange Darling evokes the memories of classic horror, and recalls the violence and disjointed narrative structure of early Tarantino, does not mean that Mollner is making a derivative homage-podge. Quite the opposite. Strange Darling is a singular story like none I’ve ever seen, toying with the audience’s knowledge and expectations, only to yank the rug out from under them at the perfect time. In my recent review of The Watchers, I decried the seemingly arbitrary withholding of information to create the illusion of intrigue and mystery. But when Strange Darling announced itself as “a thriller in 6 chapters” and then started on Chapter 3, laying its intentions bare to mislead, misguide, and just plain mess with us, I knew I was in for a ride.
By this point, it’s probably become fairly obvious that I don’t want to talk about anything plot-related with Strange Darling, but I will say that it is not for the faint of heart. There are a few very uncomfortable moments of sexual violence, but they are relatively short and less graphic than other scenes of violence. The two leads dig deep and go to some dark places. Kyle Gallner is fantastic as The Demon, but Nashville native Willa Fitzgerald gives possibly the best performance I’ve seen all year, especially in the film’s haunting yet beautiful final shot. If you’re willing to go on a dark and demented ride from the safety of a couch or movie theater, it doesn’t get much better than Strange Darling.
