'Strange Darling' A Review

Strange Darling is a horror/thriller about the final crimes of a serial killer. Set in Oregon and cut into non-sequential chapters it follows the enmity between The Lady(Willa Fitzgerald) and The Demon(Kyle Gallner).

Fitzgerald, clearly relishing the lead position, goes big. Its a full, almost over-brimming, performance, full of ticks, digressions, and a wide range of emotion. Its impressive but at times incongruous or distracting, its busyness occasionally clashes with character coherence. Gallner ultimately has the easier job, on the page he is more contained, but his stolidness pairs well with Fitzgerald's more baroque approach. The supporting cast is so small as to have very little impact but Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. are absolutely delightful in a brief interlude.

The production bursts with ambition and ideas, there's a couple scenes with saturated monochrome lighting, the shot composition and cutting meld well with the non-linear structure. The soundtrack and score are effective with one diegetic song that's really effective. The bloodwork and action, seemingly all practical, gives it a bit of a 90's grindhouse feel that works. All in all its solid and feels if not totally unique(the influences are very clear almost glaring) at least fresh especially this year with a release schedule so abbreviated and homogenous.

There is an eagerness and excitement that's contagious in the film from writer/director JT Mollner and in total he shows a lot of promise but there are some missteps like the title card loudly proclaiming "Shot in 35 mm" which comes across as pretty gauche as well as the unnecessary true crime lay on that doesn't really work. But the bigger issue is in the messaging, there's a turn about 2/3rds of the way through, a twist/reveal, that recontextualizes what's happening(the non-linear structure is in service mostly to this), and the implications of that are, at best, muddled. It doesn't seem deliberate but an unintended consequence of being overly enamored with this particular plot turn. Regardless of the reason it leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth and undercuts some of the impact.

An energetic, rich, bloody thriller whose reach ultimately exceeds its grasp.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.