‘Strange Darling’ review: Willa Fitzgerald’s electrifying run elevates this devastating shocker

A still from ‘Strange Darling’ Photo credit: X/ @strangdarlingx

In Strange DarlingWriter-director JT Mollner is determined to take viewers down a twisted rabbit hole of disaster, tapping into both Hitchcock’s psychosexual intensity and David Lynch’s fever-dream aesthetic, all while standing firmly in the tradition of grindhouse horror. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill slasher, though – far from it. Molnar creates a fragmented tale of anarchy and manipulation, blatantly throwing assumed norms of genre and gender on their head.

The film opens not with a quiet build but a full throttle chase through a Midwestern field. Willa Fitzgerald’s enigmatic protagonist, called “The Lady,” flees in slow motion, her bloody body bathed in the melancholy strains of Nazareth’s ‘Love Hearts’. This constantly screams cinematic flourishes The Texas Chainsaw MassacreYet belittles themselves with the uneasy dreams of his contemporaries, viz Mandy. Molnar doesn’t allow for a breather, immediately thrusting us into Chapter 3 of 6 into his nonlinear puzzles. Chronology is established as irrelevant, and tension spills through the film’s fractured structure, teasing out as quickly as it takes new directions.

from the beginning, Strange Darling pulse with anxiety. The film’s main duo, Lady and her pursuer, “The Demon” (Kyle Gallner), engage in a disturbing bit of adultery that quickly transitions between moments of pure terror and bits of relief. The lady may seem like a victim, fleeing for her life, but Molnar’s direction refuses to settle into such clear binaries. Both Fitzgerald and Gallner deliver powerhouse performances that toy with our sympathy. Fitzgerald balances her character’s vulnerability, while Gallner carries a disarming mix of small-town charm and brooding menace.

A still from ‘Strange Darling’ Photo credit: X/ @strangdarlingx

Much of the excitement of the film is heightened through its visual and audio design. Shot entirely on actor-turned-cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi’s 35mm film (a choice Molnar felt the need to announce with an opening slate), the grainy texture gives the film a strange retro sheen. The camera lingers on sweeping landscapes and tight close-ups alike, transforming both into menacing spaces. Colors take on symbolic weight, with repeated emphasis on red suggesting both emotion and violence in equal measure.

The sound design, however, isn’t well executed, and the film’s important early dialogues are muddied by an imbalance that left me squinting for meaning. While this was probably intended to heighten the chaos and mystery, it felt more like a technical oversight than an artistic choice.

What really makes the film stand out is how it toys with expectations. Molnar knows exactly how we’ve been conditioned to make snap judgments about gender roles in crime and horror — and she weapons that instinct at every turn. The film teases you with questions you think you’ve answered (I won’t spoil the fun), only to pull the rug out from under you just as you’re settling.

.but as the layers of misdirection pile up, the plot begins to thin. The entire game hinges on one central twist, and while it’s deliciously confusing at first, once the rug is fully pulled, the narrative begins to lose some of its bite.

A still from ‘Strange Darling’ Photo credit: X/ @strangdarlingx

Molnar’s taste for shock value also comes off as uncomfortably selfless. The lady spends much of the film in various states of physical and emotional pain, and while the genre often thrives on discomfort, the relentless brutality begins to feel less commentary and more indulgent in the agony. A late plot development involving a female police officer is also particularly ill-conceived, a disturbing comedy of errors that risks pushing the film into dangerously misogynistic territory.

Still, despite its edginess, the film is undeniably stylish, and for fans of genre films steeped in artifice and discomfort, it offers plenty to appreciate. The film’s aesthetic choices, from its sultry lighting to its serpentine editing, put Molnar’s confidence on full display. The film succeeds in creating a mood – one of oppressive fear and morbid seduction – that lingers long past the final frame.

in the end, Strange Darling Stands out as one of the boldest cinematic offerings of the year Of course, it’s not perfect — underneath all the blood-spattered bravado, you might wonder if the plot element lives up to its ambitions. But in a sea of ​​cookie-cutter horrors, Strange Darling Bold enough to leave a lasting impression, even if it occasionally steps over its own self-indulgent shoes.

Strange Darling is currently playing in theaters