Strange Darling: Filmmaker JT Mollner Turns Expectations Upside Down

By Liz Braun

Rating: B+

Strange Darling is a thriller structured as a complex series of surprises. Writing anything much about the story runs the risk of spoiling some of those surprises, so this will be a short review. Go and see it.

We can tell you that the movie begins with text spelling out what you’re going to witness: the last hurrah of a serial killer who operated in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and finally Oregon, where the story is set.

A “rampage” of killings is how it’s all described.

What you see next is a woman (Willa Fitzgerald), wounded and obviously terrified, running for her life. The man chasing her (Kyle Gallner) has a rifle and a worrying moustache.

The chase is on. The dread begins to build.

Strange Darling unfolds in six taut chapters, each layering on the primal fear. You recoil in your seat. In one scene, for example, the above-mentioned man talks to a woman he’s obviously just picked up and they have a conversation about the risks women take when they agree to casual sex with a stranger.

It’s harrowing to watch — the viewer already suspects they’re about to see a one-night stand that goes horribly wrong.

In some of these scenes the camera is in the actors’ faces in a way that adds claustrophobia to the mix; the film is dazzling to look at, and among its other surprises Strange Darling boasts actor Giovanni Ribisi as its cinematographer. What he’s up to here is so inspired that as the story unfolds, even a plate of breakfast eventually looks kind of horrifying.

Strange Darling has a small cast that includes Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey. Writer-director JT Mollner (with a terrific assist from Ribisi) is adept at manipulating and unsettling a viewer and will keep you guessing — in an entertaining fashion, of course. And more than that we cannot say.

Strange Darling. Written and directed by JT Moller. Starring Kyle Gallner, Willa Fitzgerald, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr. In theatres August 23.