This review of Strange Darling includes spoilers.
If you are looking for a murder spree thriller with a great soundtrack and beautiful cinematography, Strange Darling is just the movie for you. Split up into 6 chapters, this film follows the story of “the Lady,” played by Willa Fitzgerald, and “the Demon,” played by Kyle Gallner, who are about to get a hotel room for a one-night stand. But the two soon learn neither is who they claim to be.
The 6 chapters are presented in non-chronological order:
Chapter 3 (“Can You Help Me? Please?”)
Chapter 5 (“Here, Kitty, Kitty…”)
Chapter 1 (“Mister Snuffles”)
Chapter 4 (“The Mountain People”)
Chapter 2 (“Do You Like to Party?”)
Chapter 6 (“Who’s Gary Gilmore?”)
Epilogue
About Strange Darling
Strange Darling begins with a black and white shot of an unknown man, later identified as the Demon, sitting in a car smoking before an unknown voice, later identified as the Lady, asks the man if he is a serial killer.
Next a narrated text crawl appears on screen, very similar to the opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It reads:
“Between 2018 and 2020, the most prolific and unique American serial killer of the 21st century went on a calculated, multi-state spree that began in Denver, Colorado, continued through Grand Lake, and expanded across Wyoming and central Idaho before culminating in the dense forest of Hood River County, Oregon.
Drawing from Police interviews, detailed accounts of eye witnesses, depositions, and observations of various law enforcement, this is a dramatization of the true story of the final known killings in the rampage…”
While this text crawl claims Strange Darling is based on real life events, there is no proof of any true crime event matching the ones depicted in this movie. There is not a known serial killer whose description and crimes matches the accounts in Strange Darling, nor is there any of the police interviews, detailed accounts of eye witnesses, depositions, and observations of various law enforcement mentioned in the text crawl. When the writer and director JT Mollner was asked if Strange Darling was actually based on real life events he responded “perhaps.” A more probable theory is that the narrated introduction was an element used to heightened the events in Strange Darling and the audience’s reactions.
After the text crawl, a long, slow-motion shot follows of the Lady running out of the woods, across a field, and straight at the camera as the open credits appear. As she gets closer, her bloody, disfigured ear becomes visible.
Then, the screen reads Chapter 3 “Can You Help Me? Please?” and we see the Lady speeding off in a car down a windy, rural road, and a black truck, driven by the Demon, following after her. The Demon then gets out of his car and shoots out the Lady’s back windshield, causing her car to flip. She gets out of the car and sprints into the nearby woods. A game of cat and mouse ensues.
Review
In chapter 2 it is revealed that the Lady is in fact a serial killer, not the Demon. Throughout Strange Darling, the direction was supposed to make the viewer think the Demon was hunting the Lady. With a non-linear story, it was easy to put shots in that made the audience think one thing, and then later when the story looped back around more context was added. For example, a scene of the Demon choking the Lady was later revealed to be a part of her BDSM fantasy. There is also a consensual non-consensual sexual scene where it seems like the Demon is about to rape the Lady, but is reveal to have been a previously agreed upon role play fantasy. As an aside, Strange Darling should have had a trigger warning for this scene because even though it was consensual, it was very dark and explicit. But even with scenes alluding to the Demon being the serial killer, the twist was unfortunately very obvious.
Not only was the twist obvious, but it shifted Strange Darling to a “she’s crazy and men are the real victims” narrative. There is a great scene of the Lady explaining to the Demon how casual sex for women is very different than how it is for men, but with the twist of the Lady being the killer, this point is undermined. There is then another scene towards the end where two police officers find the Lady, who has pulled her pants down to make it look like she had been raped. The female officer, Gale, insists they need to get her immediate medical attention and the male officer, Pete, argues saying they should wait for the rest of the team to arrive. He also adds she might not even be the victim and they need back up to assess the crime scene. Gale scoffs, saying the Lady is obviously a victim and eventually Pete agrees to drive the three of them to get help. When it is proven that the Lady in fact was not a victim, the male police officer turns to insult Gale for the mistake, furthering the false allegation stereotype that many women face. While this is an interpretation of the tone of the movie, it is really hard to look past as a viewer. And even if that was not the intention of Strange Darling, it then makes it look tone deaf and completely unaware.
With all that being said, there are things in this movie that need to be praised. The acting, first and foremost, was fantastic. Willa Fitzgerald’s acting is phenomenal. She is able to portray the intense shifts in the Lady’s emotions that are chilly yet realistic. The beginning chapter, Chapter 3, is almost entirely dialogue free and relies heavily on body language and facial expressions and both Fitzgerald and Gallner are able to execute it flawlessly. This movie also has incredible soundtrack composed by Craig DeLeon. He is able to create the essence of terror and anger with his music and make the lack of dialogue unnoticeable due to the captivating instrumentals and larger then life sound. If there is one thing to walk away from this movie with it is to be on the look out for Craig DeLeon’s project.
Chapters: The story layout of Strange Darling lends itself well to a horror thriller because you never know what came before or what comes next. It keeps the audience engaged and invested in the story, and ultimately helps prolong big plot devices.
Music: The Strange Darling soundtrack alone is enough to go see this movie, even if the story or horror don’t interest you. It is one of the first things you will notice, even if you are not one to fixate on a film’s score.
Actors: Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner do a magnificent job in this movie. Their performances are entirely different from the other, and it works perfectly.
The “big twist”: Strange Darling has been marketed with tag lines like “nothing is what it seems” and “go in blind”. But truthfully, the Lady being the serial killer was almost immediately apparent. In fact, it seemed unlikely that the Demon was even an option based how hard the story was trying to make him seem like a killer.
“True Story”: The text crawl at the beginning seemed very unnecessary considering that the movie was not based on real life events at all. It did not add much to the viewing experience or the tone. It was almost like an afterthought to include it, and was just being used due to the money that true crime brings in.
Why is this movie so against women?: For the reasons stated above, this movie was hard to get behind due to the hard stance the script seems to take on how men should be trusted and women shouldn’t be. While the Lady seems to not want to kill women if she can help it, there is no recognition of this small detail and it really just seems like it was a coincidence when writing the story. This movie could have been more impactful if the Lady’s backstory was even hinted at.
This movie might not be for you if you aren't a huge gore fan.
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