The commendably unorthodox Strange Darling is a thrilling ride

Viewership has fascinated filmmakers and moviegoers alike since cinema's creation Just look at the final image of 1903's The Great Train Robbery. This famous shot initially seems like just a robber's (played by Justus D. Barnes) mugshot. only for the character to pull out a gun, point it at the screen, and fire at the audience. Suddenly, The Great Train Robbery involves the viewer in a whole new way. Subsequent movies often didn’t so directly reference moviegoers. However, concepts like “Who is watching who?” and meta-commentary on viewership persist in cinema throughout the art form’s evolution.

Strange Darling is the latest motion picture contemplating queries informing works like Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces Vertigo and Rear Window. What do you see on-screen? When a stranger crosses your path, what do you see in them? What informs your view of the wider world? These are the questions underpinning what’s also a crackling good thriller. Watching Strange Darling, you can contemplate these existential questions that have endured in cinema for eons. Also, you can just strap in and enjoy the absorbing ride writer/director JT Mollner has concocted.

This indie thriller kicks off on the right foot displaying on-screen text proclaiming Strange Darling's "shot entirely on 35mm film". After further on-screen text clarifying that the film chronicles a “dramatization” of a fictional serial killer’s final months, audiences enter this story in media res. Protagonist The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) is running across rural Oregon with gun-toting The Demon (Kyle Gallner) in hot pursuit. Nothing else initially informs these character dynamics beyond The Lady's desire to survive.

Mollner's script chronicling The Lady and The Demon spans six sections (plus an epilogue). Dividing movies into chapters has become common in modern movies ranging from Furiosa to Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Strange Darling's unique flourish is in executing those individual chapters non-linearly. After kicking off in the “middle” of its story, Strange Darling flashes forward and backward across The Lady and The Demon’s dynamic. Before running across various rural backdrops, the pair were strangers preparing to spend the night together at a motel. How quickly things can change.  

It's fitting Strange Darling’s trailer emphasizes the feature hailing from Barbarian producer Roy Lee. After all, JT Mollner’s latest screenplay evokes an especially fascinating aspect of that 2022 Zack Cregger motion picture.  Talking about Barbarian's screenplay to Below the Line, Cregger noted that this entertaining horror title came about accidentally. "I just started writing late at night...I wanted to write a scene just for myself,” Cregger explained. “I wasn’t trying to write a movie. I just wanted to have fun creating something like I used to do when I was a little kid.” A larger outline didn’t dictate the Barbarian’s form. Instead, Cregger kept coming up with material entertaining him as a moviegoer.

Mollner’s Strange Darling screenplay appears carved from that same approach and that’s a deep compliment. The dead air between exciting set pieces haunting other horror movies like Saw X or 2018's Halloween is absent here. Instead, consistent bravura creativity informs each corner of Mollner’s script. This includes its most exciting “twists” and a thorny tone oscillating between horror and dark comedy. Self-consciousness about “gritty reality” is eschewed so Mollner can pursue aesthetics and story detours he’s passionate about. Such dedication is infectious, especially when it manifests on-screen so impeccably.

That skill extends to Mollner and cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi showing visual deftness in executing Strange Darling’s various aesthetics. The feature’s first segment heavily evokes classic silent movies in chronicling The Lady evading The Demon. Nary a word is spoken in striking images relying on physical acting and wide shots decked in gorgeous natural lighting. It’s all so compellingly rendered that you won’t realize this sequence’s eschewing of dialogue until long after the credits finish rolling.

Later, a section dedicated to these two characters talking in The Demon’s car is a much more intimate dialogue-driven affair. Mollner and Ribisi deftly utilize tighter shots here bathed in blue neon light. Just because this duo is now chatting in an automobile doesn’t mean the screen can’t light up with striking imagery. The visuals remain just as compelling when conversations take center stage. Fitzgerald and Gallner’s performances also stay transfixing in these confines.

Previously in Strange Darling's runtime, body language exclusively defined this pair. The way they walked, cowered beneath a tree, held a gun or any other actions offered windows into their internal desires. In this Strange Darling segment, they’re depicted chatting in car seats. Line deliveries must carry the day. If you wandered into the movie just in this segment, you might even assume it's an indie dark comedy! Committing to that mold and also something resembling F.W. Murnau's outdoor version of Hush is a weighty task both Strange Darling lead performers are very much up for. Fitzgerald especially excels here and with any nuances, the screenplay throws at her. She’s a mesmerizing tour de force.

These versatile images and performances across just these two segments (let alone the entire movie) make Strange Darling an especially exciting treat. Such qualities instill thrilling uncertainty over where this production is going next. Committing to a physically restrained scope for this story further accentuates those virtues. Fellow August 2024 indie horror movie Cuckoo was too lost in the weeds overdosing on supporting characters and mythos. Meanwhile, Strange Darling focuses on a few figures across an equally sparse number of sets. Devoting the proceedings to such limited means lets the malleability and versatility of these artists truly leave an impact.

Inevitably, some aspects of this audacious project miss the mark. Strange Darling’s home stretch feels a bit prolonged and repetitive, namely. There’s also one plot point in the feature’s sixth chapter that feels…distractingly unrealistic even within this movie’s heightened world. Meanwhile, Strange Darling’s original needle drops (and a "Love Hurts" rendition) from musician Z Berg are hit-or-miss. Some tunes hit the spot thanks to her distinctive and smooth voice, like that "Love Hurts" cover. Other times, ditties like "Better the Devil" are more intrusive than beneficial to the sequences they inhabit. Surely original compositions from Craig Deleon's terrifically pronounced score (I love his blaring ominous leitmotif for The Demon) would’ve better fit those scenes.

Warts and all, though, Strange Darling is a terrifically entertaining movie that delivers an enjoyable Friday night at the theater. Mollner’s latest directorial effort drops gasp-worthy twists with as much grace as it executes a greatly extended sight gag involving the preparation of an artery-clogging breakfast. Take a cue from Mike Flanagan’s pull quote from the Strange Darling trailer. Go into this one without any spoilers disrupting your experience. That way, you can properly absorb Strange Darling's pontifications on viewership and the fact that the villain of Ted is a fantastic cinematographer.