On September 5, cinemas began to release a thriller with slasher elements about a ruthless murderer «Strange Darling». Just like last week’s novelty «Night with the Devil», movie received a favorable review on social network X from Stephen King, who called it «terrific», as well as the sky-high rating from film critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which currently stands at 96% «fresh» with 112 reviews. In the review below, we explain how the film could win over the audience and why the non-linear narrative factor is so important here.
Pluses:
a tense, non-linear narrative that manages to manipulate the audience's expectations; excellent acting from Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner; and a high level of technical excellence, despite the modest $4 million budget;
Minuses:
perhaps the ending is a bit disappointing;
«Strange Darling»
Genre maniacal thriller
Director J.T. Mollner
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr, Stephen Michael Quesada, Madisen Beaty, Bianca A. Santos, Denise Grayson, Jason Patrick
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
An asphalt road stretches along the Oregon forests and fields bathed in the pleasant summer sun, and it is almost the only evidence of civilization here. It is on this road that a furious man on cocaine with a shotgun is chasing a crying girl in his pickup truck, desperately trying to get away from his annoying pursuer. With one well-aimed shot, the victim loses control of the steering wheel, forcing her to leave the frantic vehicle and seek refuge elsewhere in the forest. And it all started as an innocent prank called a one-night stand.
Perhaps this is all that the viewer should know before watching the new thriller from Miramax, which in the 90s was an island of talented indie cinema like today’s A24. As can be seen from the brief plot description, at least at the initial stage, the film tries to pretend to be another blatantly straightforward slasher like «The Texas Chainsaw Massacre» (despite the fact that the film features conventional Oregon instead of the redneck Texas). Or some «Jeepers Creepers», when in the debut it was about unpleasant car accidents in the middle of a deserted wilderness.
However, for the director and screenwriter J.T. Mollner, for whom this is only the second feature film in his career, the genre trope «final girl» —, which has been worn out and even reinterpreted in a postmodern way, is just a warm-up, an aperitif before the main course.
No wonder the film opens with a scene in which an embarrassed blonde woman runs towards the camera in slow motion, which, incidentally, is held firmly in the hands of Giovanni Ribisi for the first time. It is already clear that Mollner planned to turn the initial genre typecasting upside down. And he succeeded.
Two fundamentally important components of a successful film are good editing work and high-quality acting.
«Strange Darling» can serve as a vivid example of how a simple story can be transformed into something extremely exciting through editing. Structurally, the film is divided into six chapters, arranged out of chronological order, and this is what allows the creators to successfully manipulate the audience’s expectations. To make us perceive the same episodes differently, depending on the stage of development of the story.
The very first shots that the viewer sees are indicative of this: they are fragments of two future scenes taken out of context, which already evoke strong associations with the character. In order to avoid annoying spoilers that could spoil the viewing experience, we will simply limit ourselves to stating that the power of non-linear storytelling and, consequently, editing in this film is extremely great.
The details in «Strange Darling» are also perfectly worked out. The cold blue neon lights up the characters’ faces and seems to indicate a still distrustful relationship between two strangers who plan to rent a room in a cheap motel and have a good time. Later, warm colors will replace it, which can symbolize a more trusting attitude towards each other, reinforced by alcohol. But the appearance of irritating red will suggest a certain ominousness of the situation. At some point, the story will reach a point of no return, when the main character will already be in a space with solid red lighting around her.
And it certainly makes sense to emphasize the local actors’ performances: both Kyle Gallner and especially Willa Fitzgerald give excellent and quite complex performances that required great skill. There is no doubt that their characters will not leave the audience indifferent and will evoke obvious emotions. And that’s a good thing.
«Are you a serial killer?» — Fitzgerald’s character, designated as Lady, asks the Demon — Gallner’s character directly. And who would have thought that the path to answering this simple question would be so exciting and tense? «Strange Darling» may not be a revelation in the maniacal thriller genre, in particular, with the slasher’s chase after the doomed victim, but it is clearly a worthy representative of the creepy direction of cinema. And Giovanni Ribisi, by the way, is great.
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