Strange Darling
“I’m gonna have to ask you a question; are you a serial killer?”
I wouldn’t have thought it’s a classic get-to-know-you question for a first date. Then again, my toe dip into Tinder never translated from phone to passenger seat of a scary pickup truck. But for the cautious protagonist of Strange Darling, the sophomore feature from writer and director J.T. Mollner, the answer to this question could mean the difference between life or death. Shot entirely on 35mm film by Giovanni Ribisi in his cinematography debut and told in non-linear chronology over six chapters, Strange Darling is a twisty cat and mouse thriller about a one-night-stand gone horribly, horribly wrong. It’s also a film best entered with as little prior knowledge as possible. You’ve been warned.
The film opens like Fargo and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre do – with a title card fabricating the truth. It claims that we’re about to experience some re-enacted true crime, specifically the final spree of a prolific American serial killer through Oregon. Then we meet The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald), panickedly driving a vintage red Pinto down a rural street. In hot pursuit is The Demon (Kyle Gallner) in his thunderous pickup, seemingly running over the camera as he chases his prey. He manages to shoot out the back of the Pinto and flip it, forcing its driver to flee on foot through the woods and an open field. She wears red all over - scrubs on her body and blood smeared on the side of her face - and it seems the top part of her ear has been taken off. In slow motion she runs towards the camera, the principal theme “Love Hurts” (feat. Keith Carradine) scoring her escape. It’s a striking start to a film that manages to subvert more than just audience expectations and maintain the tension from its iconic opening scene even after it’s made its reveal.
With each out-of-order chapter new information is revealed and several new characters enter, colouring in more of the map. Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey co-star as breakfast enthusiasts and mountain people (although they prefer “hippy” and “ex-biker”), and Breaking Bad’s Steven Michael Quezada turns up as, you guessed it, a cop. And it seems the more people that get dragged into the game, the worse it turns out for all players. Part of the fun of riding shotgun to Strange Darling is bearing witness to the scenery its main characters interrupt, the most notable of which is the mountain couple’s tranquil country home. I particularly respect Ribisi’s ability to make a full American breakfast from bird's-eye view the most hilariously gruesome thing on display in a film about murder.
But it’s the interplay between Fitzgerald and Gallner that makes Strange Darling sizzle. And that makes sense, considering they’re both familiar with genre fare. Fitzgerald played Young Madeline Usher in Mike Flanagan’s flawed but undeniably engaging Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher, while Gallner played the final girl boy in Smile. Strange Darling is a better example of both of their talents, pitting the two against each other in a way that echoes Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott in last year’s thriller comedy Sanctuary.
Strange Darling shares that film’s sexuality and exploration of BDSM but dials up the danger, oftentimes pushing the audience into uncomfortable territory. Mollner succeeds in maintaining a consistent tone that allows for some quite panic inducing scenes as well as some careful punctuations of levity. Ribisi’s grainy cinematography gives the film a slightly vintage look that complements its daylight images; in fact, much of the brutality occurs during the day, which I’m always a fan of in horror or horror adjacent films. And Mollner goes all or nothing on the film’s single-artist soundtrack, nominating indie musician Z Berg as its spiritual third main character. After the film ended, Alex described the soundtrack as “a ladies mixtape” and I agree, though with a more favourable take than I suspect he meant. It’s like the self indulgent, idealistic version of Aimee Mann on Magnolia and it sings to my soul.
What I enjoy most about the film is the reckless abandon with which it pursues its messages, and its overall lack of self consciousness. Strange Darling’s twists and turns take it to a place ripe for scrutiny; there will be those who take issue with the potential implications of its messaging but in 2024, the same can be said for any piece of media that goes out in front of the general audience of the internet. And in an era where blockbusters attempt to please every single demographic and fail in almost every instance, it’s refreshing to see a film that really doesn’t give a fuck.
Strange Darling is a confidently made, completely entertaining and stylish film that is well worth the sacrifice of going to the cinema and hoping you don’t have to deal with other people’s poor etiquette (plastic rustling is for before the movie starts, sweeties). If we can’t just go out and use righteous violence on people who wrong us, we can at least see it depicted well on screen.
Verdict
☆☆☆☆
Strange Darling is in select cinemas this Thursday. Take a Tinder date who you barely know.
