Should I See- (Strange Darling)

Is Strange Darling the horror movie of the year?

Aug 24, 2024

Even though it premiered close to a year ago at FantasticFest in Austin Texas in September of 2023, I hadn’t seen much about JT Mollner’s film Strange Darling in the last few months before it’s release. I don’t think I even saw a trailer for it before any of the recent slew of horror movies(Cuckoo, Trap, Alien: Romulus) that have released in July and August. These days trailers for movies come out earlier and earlier and seem to get longer and longer; Most of the time giving away all the plot points of the movie in an effort to convince the audience that “yes you will enjoy every part of this movie so you might as well come and see it”. I am so glad that this wasn’t the case for Strange Darling.

If I can suggest anything to you in this review it’s that you find out as little as possible about the movie beforehand. Trust me. Usually I’ll give a longer non-spoiler review talking a bit about the movie. I’m going to keep this one as short and sweet as possible.

Willa Fitzgerald is amazing as the Lady, Kyle Gallner lives up to his name as “the Demon”, and Ed Begley jr. and Barbara Hershey have some truly wild scenes (might be my favorite characters in the movie). The pacing and narrative style is incredible as well as the cinematography (didn’t find out until after that the cinematographer was Giovanni Ribisi!).

Strange Darling might not just be my favorite Horror movie of the year but my favorite movie of the year in general. I can’t recommend you get out to the theaters and see it enough. Then, after you see the movie, come back and read the spoiler review because there’s ALOT I want to talk about. I’ll give a few extra spoiler warnings this week so no one can complain that I didn’t try and stop them.

::SPOILERS AHEAD::

::SPOILERS AHEAD::

OK. That should be enough to scare anyone who hasn’t seen the movie away. Because if you haven’t seen the movie and are still reading you’re doing yourself an incredible disservice. Now let’s talk about that twist. I haven’t gotten fooled by a movie that badly in a while, long enough that I don’t think I can even remember the last movie that got me. (Maybe Shutter Island?)

I attribute most of that success to two things, the narrative style and the casting of Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. In the beginning the movie claims to be a true story about the last few killings of a serial killer in 6 chapters. We then immediately are thrown into chapter 3. followed by chapter 5. Then Chapter 1 and chapter 4, and finally chapters 2 and 6 followed by an epilogue. In the beginning I was skeptical about this (it’s very easy to mess up a non-linear story especially if a director takes as big of a swing as this) but after seeing the movie I can’t see how you could tell that story in any other way. JT Mollner actually said in an interview recently that the studio demanded they edit it chronologically and it was terrible, becoming too straightforward and boring. Skipping around in the story allows them to preserve the twist until the end of the second act rather than 25 minutes into the movie.

While jumping around to different chapters obfuscates the true story of the movie, Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner add so much to the mystery in the way they portray their characters, slowly and expertly morphing them into who the director needs them to be by the end of the movie. Because of the parts of the story we are shown in the beginning Willa Fitzgerald as “the Lady” comes off as a scared, weak, SEVERELY injured woman who is doing everything she can to escape a psychopath with cocaine attempting to run her down with his truck or shoot her. We then slowly get to see who she was before all of this. In these scenes she comes off as a “fun” girl on a date, a little cautious and flirty with a very direct attitude about what she likes in bed. Finally, when we are then thrown to almost the end of the story, she starts to show us some of her edge (In the scenes with the mountain people). It’s almost a complete transformation by her and her acting blew me away. The way she switches from killer to victim multiple times in the movie to gain the upper hand in a situation and fool someone into letting their guard down is so satisfying to watch.

(I had only ever seen Willa Fitzgerald in Reacher and The Fall of the House of Usher and she was good in both but now I hope to see her in a lot more.)

Conversely Kyle Gallner is introduced as a psychopath from minute one, chasing her down on the highway and shooting out her back window before hunting her through the woods.Seeming to be the predator in this gamr of cat and mouse. He then maintains this persona throughout the rest of the movie mostly by look and energy. Gallner as a person just has one of those looks, like right under the surface he’s a psychopath that’s ready to snap. It’s perfect casting and a big part as to why this movie works so well. (Even when you know he’s not crazy you just still feel like you can’t entirely trust him.)

A Couple of more things I wanted to shout out:

The Mountain people with their breakfast and their Scott Baio puzzle — What the fuck was that breakfast? It had 2 full sticks of butter, eggs, pancakes, sausage, jelly and peanut butter maybe? maple syrup? and i feel like I’m forgetting more. I honestly thought they were high on shrooms or something. The puzzle and everything else was just such a delightfully weird touch for this movie that I was really into. Like i said before they may be my favorite characters in the movie haha.

Giovanni Ribisi as cinematographer and the directing in general — This movie was shot on 35mm film and i think it’s so much better for it. The colors look so crisp and the one-shot of Willa Fitzgerald when she escapes the hotel room might be my favorite one-shot since Children of Men. Amazingly shot.

::END SPOILERS::

::END SPOILERS::

Should I See Strange Darling

YES. As I said before if you haven’t seen it (don’t look up anything about it besides the trailer if you want) and go see it in in a theater. It’s shot on 35mm film so it deserves to be seen on the big screen and it just might be my favorite movie of the year. After you see it come back and read the spoilers portion of the review because we have a lot to talk about. Enjoy!

Comment below with your thoughts on Strange Darling!