STRANGE DARLING | ©2024 Magenta Light Studios / Miramax

Rating: R
Stars: Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Madisen Beatty, Bianca Santos, Steven Michael Quezada, Ed Begley Jr., Barbara Hershey
Writer: JT Mollner
Director: JT Mollner
Distributor: Magenta Light Studios/Miramax
Release Date: August 23, 2024

How to review STRANGE DARLING without spoilers? It seems fair enough to include the film’s opening, which informs us that it’s shot in 35mm (something of a rarity these days). This allows cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi (also one of STRANGE DARLING’s producers) to play with crisp black-and-white, saturated colors and even over-saturation, depending on the mood of the sequence.

At the black-and-white start, we see a man (Kyle Gallner) smoking a cigarette in a car. The woman (Willa Fitzgerald) with him asks if he’s a serial killer.

Simultaneous narration (provided by Jason Patric) and an onscreen crawl tell us that, between 2018 and 2020, the most prolific and unique serial killer of the twenty-first century went on a multi-state spree that ended in Oregon. We are told that this is a dramatization of the final known killings drawn from police reports, eyewitness accounts, etc. (For what it’s worth, STRANGE DARLING is not based on a true story; this seems like a slight nod to the opening of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.)

Then we see the woman running for her life, as the palette changes from black-and-white to brilliant color. The look here and the mood throughout have a ‘70s indie vibe, as do the screen-covering size of the initial credits.

STRANGE DARLING’s title comes with a subtitle: “A thriller in 6 chapters.” We will duly be given what’s happening, how it came to happen, and what happened afterwards.

Even to discuss STRANGE DARLING’s meta aspects seems like a risk of too much information. Director/writer JT Mollner manages to pack plenty of real surprises into the proceedings, even for viewers who may guess one key element before it’s disclosed. The film is not a gore-fest, but the incidents of violence pack a visceral punch. It was also shot in Oregon, so it has the benefit of visual verisimilitude.

Fitzgerald and Gallner both display enormous range and conviction. Ed Begley Jr., Barbara Hershey, Steven Michael Quezada and Madisen Beaty are extremely well-cast in smaller roles.

There are things about STRANGE DARLING that not everyone will love. The prioritizing of the unexpected means that certain other traditional concerns don’t get the kind of care that might make this a more immersive experience.

Still, we want the answers to all the questions STRANGE DARLING poses all the way through. It holds our attention from start to finish.

This reviewer sincerely hopes that the above conveys some sense of what STRANGE DARLING is like, without disclosing more of its plot than is detectable at its beginning.

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