Review by Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong
Strange Darling is the greatest Horror-Thriller of the year. Writer-Director J.T. Mollner has crafted an audacious and wickedly fun ride that plays with audiences’ expectations resulting in twists and surprises at every turn.
We open with a prologue that visually mirrors 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With the same tone, the voice-over reads the words as they move like credits on the screen. We learn in Oregon between 2018 and 2020 a serial killer was running rampant. But in 2020, in an Oregon forest, their vicious killing spree came to an end. It ends with stating this is a ‘dramatization’ of that final spree.
This ‘dramatization’ is told in six chapters. Yet, Mollner doesn’t tell them chronologically. Rather, they are told non-linearly. In doing so, Mollner — who should be considered a Screenwriting mastermind — is easily able to shock the audience from beginning to end. He achieves this by understanding that audiences’ expectations are rooted in our collective social ideals of serial killers, Horror films, and what we think happens when a meet-cute goes awry.
Those who’ve watched the Trailer, know the Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) and the Demon (Kyle Gallner) talk about consummating their night in a motel room. They discuss the questions women must ask themselves during a one-night stand. This is the foundation of Strange Darling. Yet, the visionary Mollner doesn’t open with Chapter 1 but with Chapter 3. Thus, we open with a car chase, where the Demon is chasing the terrified Lady. From there, we’re given Chapters out of sequence where we learn a little about both these characters. It allows the audience to be an active participant in the film rather than simply the observer.
Strange Darling is a visual feast. Actor-turned-Cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi shoots on 35 mm. It gives a ‘70s feel but he also uses colour in the early chapters. Blue hues wash over the meet-cute moment. Most impressive, the scariest moments happen in the bright light of day as the Demon hunts the Lady in the woods.
At the center are the two leads. Fitzgerald gives the performance of a lifetime. This is a role that only comes along once in a blue moon and she knows it. She gives everything and more in this star-making role. And Gallner, never a stranger to playing the villain, is cast perfectly. He throws himself into the darker aspects of the Demon while leaving room to see a lighter side.
Strange Darling is a perfectly-written and beautifully shot Horror-Thriller that will go down as one of the best in American Cinema. It has taken a sub-genre of Horror that’s constantly been duplicated and managed to create an entirely original concept. If you want to be taken on the ride of your life, Strange Darling will strap you right in and not let you go.
VVS Films release STRANGE DARLING on Friday, August 23, 2024.
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