Strange Darling

Beginning with a “Texas Chainsaw” like introduction narrated by Jason Patric and outlining the path of a serial killer from Denver through Wyoming and Idaho, then into the dense woods of Oregon from 2018 to 2020, we are told we are about to watch a thriller in 6 chapters. So what to make of being immediately dropped into Chapter 3 ‘Can You Help Me? Please?’ in which a man (Kyle Gallner, "Dinner in America," "Smile") driving a black truck hunts a woman (Willa Fitzgerald, "18 1/2," "Wildcat") in an old 70’s Pinto with a rifle? It is but the beginning of the mysteries to unfold in “Strange Darling.”
Laura's Review: B+
Writer/director JT Mollner ("Outlaws and Angels") takes a very familiar plot and turns it on its head, largely by shuffling the way he unfolds his story. It is a clever concept, continually zigging and zagging, although folks who’ve seen a lot of movies may figure out his game before he reveals it. The film is elevated by Fitzgerald and Gallner’s evolving performances and unique dynamic, but also, most surprisingly, by the color coded 35mm cinematography by Giovanni Ribisi, the actor moving up to features after having shot several music videos.
After the blond woman is hunted through the woods, she notes a house which, oddly, has speakers blasting a radio program outside. Knocking on the door, which is opened by Frederick (Ed Begley Jr.) as his wife Genevieve (Barbara Hershey) hovers in the background, the bloodied woman asks the titular chapter line.
We then jump to Chapter 5, ‘Here Kitty, Kitty,’ which finds the hunter casing the house interior cautiously with his rifle. Frederick lies dead face down on the floor in a pool of blood. The terrified blond woman is in an enclosed space, a lighter illuminating her face. Chapter 1, ‘Mister Snuffle,’ shows us how it all began, the blond woman in a pink wig in the front cab of the man’s truck, the two cast in blue from the neon sign announcing the Blue Angel Motel, which appears to be their destination. They’re drinking and flirtatious. ‘You seem like a nice guy, but you never really know. Are you a serial killer?’ the woman asks half jokingly. Suddenly the lighting shifts to red, emphasizing the man’s muscular build in the interior of a room. It’s an abrupt and frightening shift (editing by Christopher Robin Bell), but it is also misleading, like so much else in this film.
To say more would spoil the fun in a movie which upends expectations at every turn. Just as production designer Priscilla Elliott contrasts a roadside motel with Fred and Genevieve’s storybook cottage in the woods, so too do she and Ribisi use the colors blue and red, designating prey and hunter (there’s a killer overhead shot of a blue police vehicle, its roof-mounted siren blue on one significant side, red on the other). Mollner expertly adjusts tonal shifts throughout, humor and horror trading places. Chapter 4, for example, gives us insight into the decadent hippie lifestyle of that older couple referred to as ‘mountain people,’ where copious amounts of butter and maple syrup at breakfast are followed by Scott Baio jigsaw puzzles. And as the title might imply, there is also romance, Fitzgerald and Gallner really getting into each other.
“Strange Darling” arrives under the radar, but be sure to put it on yours. Mollner’s crafted an ingenious indie gem and Ribisi’s love of photography, as evinced here, may mean a major shift in career.
Robin's Review: B
Magenta Light Studios and Miramax release "Strange Darling" in theaters on 8/23/24.