Barbara Hershey, Bianca A. Santos, Denise Grayson, drama, Ed Begley Jr., Fantastic Fest, film festivals, JT Mollner, Kyle Gallner, Madisen Beaty, movies, Oregon, reviews, Steven Michael Quezada, Strange Darling, Willa Fitzgerald
November 16, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by JT Mollner
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020, in unnamed parts of Oregon, the dramatic film “Strange Darling” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A serial killer and the killer’s prey engage in a deadly battle that involves lies, manipulations and betrayals.
Culture Audience: “Strange Darling” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in watching well-acted and suspenseful psychological thrillers with many twists and turns.
“Strange Darling” has gory violence, but it’s not the slasher horror flick it appears to be. It’s a well-made, twist-filled psychological crime thriller that’s propelled by a captivating performance by Willa Fitzgerald. One of the best things about “Strange Darling” is that it upends a lot of stereotypes that are in many other “killer on the loose” movies.
Written and directed by JT Mollner, “Strange Darling” takes place in unnamed rural parts of Oregon, where the movie was filmed on location. “Strange Darling” had its world premiere at the 2023 edition of Fantastic Fest. “Strange Darling” takes place in the 2020s, but it has the vibe of a movie that could have been made in the 1980s, which is maybe why the movie was shot on 35mm film.
“Strange Darling” has six identified chapters and an epilogue. The narrative is non-linear and begins with the epilogue, and the chapters are shown in non-consecutive order. “Strange Darling” challenges viewers to put the pieces of the puzzle together until some shocking truths are revealed.
The beginning of “Strange Darling” has a woman heard off-camera saying: “I have to ask you question: Are you a serial killer?” The movie later reveals who asked this question and why. A caption on screen then explains that a serial killer has been on a murder spree from 2010 to 2020, mostly in Western states in the United States. “Strange Darling” shows the last killings in this murder spree and what happened to the serial killer.
The first thing that viewers see is a woman with bleach-blonde hair and wearing red hospital scrubs, as she runs frantically through the woods in slow motion. Her left ear has a bloody injury. This woman, played by Fitzgerald, is only identified in the end credits as The Lady. Viewers never find out her name.
Chapter 3 of the movie of the movie is shown next and reveals that a man is hunting this woman and racing after her in his truck while she’s driving a red car. In the end credits, this male character is called The Demon (played by Kyle Gallner), but later in the movie it’s revealed that his name is RC. He is snorting a white powder (later revealed to be cocaine) while he’s driving and chasing the car that’s being driven by the woman. The car she’s driving crashes, so she runs into the woods on foot, which is the scene shown in the beginning of the movie.
The rest of “Strange Darling’ shows how these two people interacted with each other before and after things went awry. After meeting at a bar one night, they had a conversation in his car before deciding to have a sexual tryst at a place called the Blue Angel Hotel, which is actually a dumpy motel. She is wearing a red wig. The man finds out the woman has a kink for being tied up and strangled during a sexual encounter.
“Strange Darling” can’t really be described any more without giving away many of the plot twists. However, it’s enough to say that most of the movie’s screen time centers on the man and the woman. The homicidal hunt between these two characters escalates to increasingly dangerous proportions that involve not just grueling physical endurance but also extremely cunning manipulation.
Gallner gives a magnetic performance that enhances the mystery of what is going on and what his character’s motives are. This movie’s biggest impact has mostly to do with Fitzgerald and how her performance makes viewers feel fully absorbed by what will happen to the character she plays in “Strange Darling.” One thing that can be revealed about “Strange Darling” that won’t give away any spoiler information is that the origins of the serial killer are never shown or told in the movie. In other words, don’t expect to find out why this murderer became a serial killer.
There are supporting characters who come in contact with the man and/or the woman. These other characters are two hospital workers named Tanya (played by Bianca A. Santos) and Libby (played by Denise Grayson); two police officers named Pete (played by Steven Michael Quezada) and Gale (played by Madisen Beaty); and a married couple named Frederick (played by Ed Begley Jr.) and Genevieve (played by Barbara Hershey), who are both doomsday preppers. Not all of them will make it out alive by the end of the movie.
One of the most effective scenes in “Strange Darling” is the conversation that the man and the woman have in the car before they decided to get a room at the motel. It’s in this scene that viewers will start to form opinions about this man and woman and who is most likely to be a danger to whom. The lady is quite the talker, as she appears to be both confident and vulnerable about what she wants from this sexual encounter. The man is eager to say what he thinks she wants to hear in order for this sexual encounter to happen.
“Strange Darling” has sharp writing and directing that are complemented by great cinematography from Giovanni Ribisi, who is mostly known for being an actor. The movie’s use of neon lighting in the nighttime scenes (which are about seduction) and harsh sunlight in the daytime scenes (which are about survival) perfectly capture the intended moods for each scene. What will stay with viewers the longest after watching “Strange Darling” is the unsettling feeling that many people in real life have biases and assumptions that would lead them to make the same mistakes as the people who get murdered in the film.
Magenta Light Studios released “Strange Darling” in U.S. cinemas on August 23, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on October 1, 2024, and on Blu-ray and DVD on November 5, 2024.