Strange Darling

Strange Darling
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	JT Mollner
Written by	JT Mollner
Produced by	Bill Block Steve Schneider Roy Lee Giovanni Ribisi
Starring	Willa Fitzgerald Kyle Gallner Barbara Hershey Ed Begley Jr.
Cinematography	Giovanni Ribisi
Edited by	Christopher Robin Bell
Music by	Craig DeLeon
Production companies	Miramax Spooky Pictures
Distributed by	Magenta Light Studios
Release dates	September 22, 2023 (2023-09-22) (Fantastic Fest) August 23, 2024 (2024-08-23) (United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4 million
Box office	$3.3 million

Strange Darling is a 2023 American thriller film written and directed by JT Mollner and starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr. Set in rural Oregon, the film focuses on a man and woman who engage in a one-night stand that devolves into a cat-and-mouse game of murder. It is divided into six narrative chapters arranged in nonlinear order, and presented as a dramatization of the pinnacle of a serial killer's years-long murder spree in the Western United States. The director has neither confirmed nor denied if the film is actually based on real events, saying "perhaps" it is.

Strange Darling was shot on 35 mm film on location in Oregon in the summer of 2022 by Giovanni Ribisi, marking his debut as a cinematographer. It premiered at the 2023 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 23, 2024, by Magenta Light Studios. It received generally positive reviews from the critics.

Plot

The film is presented in six chapters and an epilogue, arranged in a nonlinear fashion, outlining the final crimes of a prolific serial killer.

In rural Hood River County, Oregon, a woman ("the Lady") meets a man ("the Demon") at a bar and the two go to a local motel to engage in a one-night stand. Prior to renting a room, the Lady explains to the Demon the risks women take engaging in such behavior, and makes him answer whether or not he is a serial killer. After he says no, the Lady agrees to proceed, and asks that she and the Demon engage in hyperrealistic sadomasochistic roleplay in which he pretends to be a murderer, and she his victim. After hours of roleplaying, the Lady insists the two use cocaine before engaging in intercourse, to which the Demon agrees. When the Lady begins acting cooly and denies the Demon sex, she reveals that she has in fact dosed him with ketamine, which renders him severely sedated.

The Lady—in fact a prolific serial killer herself, deemed "the Electric Lady" by the media—carves the initials of her moniker into the Demon's chest. While rifling through his belongings, she discovers a law enforcement badge, revealing that he is a police officer. The Lady prepares to stab the Demon to death, but he regains his faculties and manages to retrieve his concealed pistol and shoot her ear off. The Lady flees the motel in a stolen car after stabbing the desk clerk to death, and is pursued by the Demon in his truck. On a rural stretch of road, he shoots at the vehicle, causing her to crash and flee on foot into the woods.

The Lady stumbles upon the farmhouse of two eccentric hippie doomsday preppers, Frederick and Genevieve, who take her in. While Genevieve goes to retrieve medicine for the Lady, Frederick attempts to phone the police, but the Lady kills him and forces Genevieve outside. The Demon arrives on the property with his rifle. Genevieve seizes the opportunity to flee into the woods, while the Lady retreats back into the farmhouse and hides in a chest freezer. The Demon eventually finds her and punches her, and handcuffs her to the chest before calling fellow sheriff Pete and his deputy, Gale, for backup. The Lady tells the Demon she had always hoped to die like Gary Gilmore, and tearfully confesses that, during their earlier sexual encounter, she felt a fleeting moment of true love for him. She then sprays him with a can of Genevieve's bear spray. A struggle ensues during which the Lady bites into the Demon's neck, tearing into his jugular vein, causing him to bleed to death. As he dies, she steals his concealed pistol.

Pete and Gale arrive at the house, and find the Lady lying handcuffed to the freezer with her pants pulled down. She claims the Demon, high on cocaine, kidnapped her and took her to the farmhouse to rape and murder her, unaware that the home was occupied. Pete is skeptical of the scene and insists that the homicide unit investigate before they free her, but Gale convinces him that the Lady should receive immediate medical attention. As the officers escort the Lady by car toward town, Genevieve appears along the road and flags them down, but the Lady shoots her before she can explain what happened. The Lady then forces Gale and Pete to give her their guns before ordering Gale out of the car. Pete drives the Lady further down the road before she has him stop so she can consider her next move. When Pete asks her why she kills, she tells him that she sometimes "doesn't see humans, just devils" before shooting him in the head.

The Lady stumbles on foot further down the road, when another woman driving a truck picks her up. When the Lady draws her pistol, the driver returns fire, shooting the Lady. The driver calls police from her cell phone, explaining she just shot a stranger in self-defense, and that she is going to bring her to the local hospital. As the driver continues down the road, the Lady looks on as she slowly loses consciousness and dies in the passenger seat.

Cast

• Willa Fitzgerald as the Lady
• Kyle Gallner as the Demon
• Barbara Hershey as Genevieve
• Ed Begley Jr. as Frederick
• Andrew Segal as Steve
• Madisen Beaty as Gale
• Bianca Santos as Tanya
• Eugenia Kuzmina as Beth
• Steven Michael Quezada as Pete
• Denise Grayson as Libby
• Sheri Foster as the Driver
• Jason Patric as True Crime Narrator (voice)
• Giovanni Ribisi as Art Pallone (voice)

Production

Development

Writer-director JT Mollner wrote the screenplay for Strange Darling over several months, based on a visual idea he developed for the opening in which a "final girl" runs toward the camera in slow motion. Elaborating on the concept, Mollner stated: "I was drawn to the image of this final girl running through the woods. And I kept seeing that, and I knew it was a trope, except the way I saw it was there was dressing on the image that I saw, that that made it unique to me, the scrubs and the music and the frame rate, the slow motion I wanted to shoot, and the lens. I had this very stylized image in my head, but I wanted to make sure, beyond just style, there was some story here, or a unique side of a character we could show that we hadn't seen in other films, not just horror films, but films about people who are being pursued or in distress."

Filming

Miramax announced that filming on the project was underway in the Portland, Oregon area in the summer of 2022 with Mollner working from his own script to direct a cast led by Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr.. Bill Block, Steve Schneider and Roy Lee acted as producers on the project. The film was shot on 35 mm film by the director of photography, actor Giovanni Ribisi, who also has a cameo in the film, in 32 days and on a $4 million budget. Some photography took place in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Release

The film had its world premiere on September 22, 2023, at Fantastic Fest held in Austin, Texas. In March 2024, Magenta Light Studios acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.

An early access screening took place at select U.S. theaters on August 14, 2024, followed by an exclusive live-streamed Q&A session from the AMC Lincoln Square 13 Theater with writer-director Mollner, cinematographer Ribisi, and star Fitzgerald, moderated by Carla Gugino. The film opened in Australia on August 22, 2024, followed by a limited U.S. theatrical release on 1,133 screens on August 23, 2024.

Reception

Box office

As of September 12, 2024, the film has grossed $3.3 million worldwide. In the United States and Canada, it earned $1.1 million from 1,135 theaters in its opening weekend.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 115 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "JT Mollner delivers a thrillingly unexpected and electric ride with two breakout performances by Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner in Strange Darling." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Thomas Floyd of The Washington Post praised the film's performances and Ribisi's cinematography, describing it as a "sleek thriller" and "a parable about preying on female trust and vulnerability." Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times similarly praised the film, writing: "Playing out in six, ingeniously scrambled chapters, this headlong thriller transforms a simple cat-and-mouse premise—and maybe even a toxic love story—into an impertinent rebuke to genre clichés and our own preprogrammed assumptions." IndieWire's Alison Foreman awarded the film an A rating, concluding: "Electric and unforgettable, Strange Darling lives up to its maddening moniker. In a summer movie season that’s been middling at best, this is a must-see—a feat of filmmaking so extraordinary you’ll wonder if it could ever truly be spoiled."

External links

• Official website
• Strange Darling at IMDb