Strange Darling is unusual for a 2024 genre release; loud, nasty, nuanced, not particularly scary, or particularly marketable. Its entire appeal hangs on not only knowing as little about its plot and various twists as possible, but being willing to happily ride along with one of the most vicious and deplorable characters in recent memory too. It’s a big ask; a bold swing towards something very rarely seen in genre circles this decade – genuine originality. But thankfully, something which writer/director JT Mollner and his team pull off gorgeously.
In fact, this writer would go so far as to say that Strange Darling is the most exciting genre movie of the year. The sort of electric, razor sharp, morally hideous one-off that forces you to remember exactly where you were and who you were with when you first laid eyes on it. Before desperately wanting to go back for seconds, thirds and probably even fifteenths, while you unpack whatever the fuck it was you just saw.
Without wanting to take anything away from the experience, the only set-up Strange Darling really needs is to call it a two-hander. Kicking off with Willa Fitzgerald’s ‘The Lady’, mid-slow-mo run, attempting to escape the cool and calculated crosshairs of Kyle Gallner’s ‘The Demon’, Mollner wastes no time building up the sort of movie he wants us to think we’re watching.
Right from the off, we’re in needle-drop country, complete with heavy-handed title cards and non-linear plotting aplenty. Like a ’70s exploitation homage directed by an early-career Gaspar Noé, Mollner uses one title card to call his film “a thriller in six parts” (before immediately launching us into ‘Chapter 3’), and proudly uses another to declare that the entire film was shot on 35mm. It’s audacious, bratty, and very filmbro-adjacent. In 2024, you could even say that it comes across as a little obnoxious.
But if we find ourselves questioning Mollner and his team for writing cheques their movie can’t cash, we’ll very soon be eating our words. Because what unfolds isn’t really much of a homage to anything, or even just the very violent, very glossy looking thriller it at first seems, but instead a fascinating inversion of all of the above. Embracing the most gripping and entertaining parts of the thriller sandbox, and using them to tell a story that’s as straightforward as it is gnarly, sexy and plenty perverse.
Any whiff of pretentiousness fades fast. The non-linear chapter-jumping not only feels like the only way possible to present the plot, but keeps the pace up beautifully. The music choices (as well as Craig DeLeon’s nearly histrionic score) become not only welcome but a major part of Mollner’s storytelling. Even that silly title card about the entire film being shot on 35mm pays off, with the scuzzy technicolour look doing a lot of heavy lifting stylistically – immaculately lensed by first-time DOP Giovanni Ribisi (yes, that Giovanni Ribisi).
And while his technicals are very much on point, all of Mollner’s plans become moot if his cast can’t carry the weight of what he’s quietly trying to do in the background. Because as much as the plotting here is almost ironically straight, the character journeys are anything but; Strange Darling is a real mixed-up jigsaw puzzle of two-hander, and its biggest twists and revelations are buried in Fitzgerald and Gallner’s performances. The tiniest of nudges here and there, in their line delivery or in a look, and the entire plot shifts direction. Actor and director working so well in tandem.
Gallner’s wobbly macho type — building cleverly on the actor’s slowly developing persona as the indie scene’s go-to outsider-type, constantly on the precipice of either violently murdering you, or immediately breaking down in tears – is a ferocious blast. But there’s no question that Strange Darling is Fitzgerald’s movie.
The culmination of an encouraging rise through the genre ranks – from the final girl of MTV’s short-lived Scream experiment, to the messy matriarch of The Fall of the House of Usher – Strange Darling really gives the young actor her flowers. In what can only be described as an instantly iconic role, Fitzgerald is nothing short of hypnotising; monstrously provocative as she picks at every possible nuance she can find in what this writer hopes to be one of the most celebrated genre performances in some time. As deeply vulnerable, as it is truly grotesque. As painful and exposing as it is likely to take pride of place on posters adorning the walls of every cult-movie lover.
In fact, Strange Darling feels like a real take-off moment for a lot of the up and coming creatives involved. Not just for Mollner, Fitzgerald and Gallner (who, too, should find himself catapulted into the public conscious after his turn here), but composer DeLeon, new DOP Ribisi, editor Christopher Robin Bell, and in particular Rudy Rojas’s stark and lively costuming. Together, they deliver what is honestly, a real masterclass in indie genre filmmaking.
There’s not much left to say other than simply watch this movie. Large, loud and often.
Strange Darling had its European Premiere at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024.
Icon Film Distribution presents Strange Darling in UK cinemas from 20 September.
