''Strange Darling'' is a 2023 American
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
written and directed by
JT Mollner
JT Mollner is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, entrepreneur, and former actor best known for his feature film directorial debut ''Outlaws and Angels''. The film earned accolades at Sundance in 2016 for Mollner's use of ...
and starring
Willa Fitzgerald,
Kyle Gallner
Kyle Steven Gallner (born October 22, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas in the television series ''Veronica Mars'', superhero Bart Allen in the drama series ''Smallville'' and Reed Garrett ...
,
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including weste ...
, and
Ed Begley Jr.
Edward James Begley Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and environmental activist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series ''St. E ...
Set in rural Oregon, the film focuses on a man and woman who have a one-night stand that devolves into a cat-and-mouse game of murder. It is divided into six chapters in
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
order, and presented as a dramatization of the pinnacle of a serial killer's years-long murder spree in the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
.
''Strange Darling'' was shot on location in
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
in the summer of 2022 on
35 mm film 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film
35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on fi ...
by
Giovanni Ribisi
Antonino Giovanni Ribisi (; born December 17, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the TV series ''Sneaky Pete'' and the films ''Avatar'' (2009), '' Lost in Translation'' (2003), '' Ted'' (2012) and its sequel ''Ted 2'' (20 ...
, marking his debut as a cinematographer. It premiered at the 2023
Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Giant'' and ''Secondhand Li ...
in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, and was given a
limited theatrical release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...
in the United States on August 23, 2024, by
Magenta Light Studios. It received critical acclaim for its direction, writing, suspenseful sequences, and twists; and for the performances of Fitzgerald and Gallner. It grossed $3.8 million at the box office on a budget of $4–10 million.
Plot
''The film's structure is
non-linear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
, but this plot summary is written in a linear fashion.''
In rural
Hood River County, Oregon
Hood River County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,977. The county seat is Hood River. The county was established in 1908 and is named for the Hood River, a tributary of th ...
, a woman ("the Lady") meets a man ("the Demon") and the two go to a local motel to have sex. Prior to renting a room, the Lady explains to the Demon the risks women take engaging in such behavior, and makes him answer whether or not he is a serial killer. After he says no, the Lady agrees to proceed, and asks that she and the Demon engage in hyperrealistic
sadomasochistic roleplay in which he pretends to be a murderer, and she his victim. After hours of roleplaying, the Lady insists the two use
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...
before having sex, to which the Demon agrees. When the Lady begins acting cold and denies the Demon sex, she reveals that she has in fact dosed him with
ketamine
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a recreational drug. It is one of the safest anesthetics, as, in contrast with opiates, ether, and propofol, it suppresses ...
, which renders him severely sedated.
The Lady—in fact a prolific serial killer herself, dubbed "the Electric Lady" by the media—carves the initials of her moniker into the Demon's chest. While rifling through his belongings, she discovers a law enforcement badge, revealing that he is a police officer. The Lady prepares to stab the Demon to death, but as he regains his faculties, he retrieves his concealed pistol and shoots her ear off. The Lady flees the motel in a stolen car after stabbing the desk clerk to death, and is pursued by the Demon in his truck. On a rural stretch of road, he shoots at the vehicle, causing her to crash and flee on foot into the woods.
The Lady stumbles upon the farmhouse of two eccentric
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
doomsday prepper
Survivalism is a social movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who proactively prepare for emergencies, such as natural disasters, as well as other disasters causing disruption to social order (that is, civil disord ...
s, Frederick and Genevieve, who take her in. While Genevieve goes to retrieve medicine for the Lady, Frederick attempts to phone the police, but the Lady kills him and forces Genevieve outside. The Demon arrives on the property with his rifle. Genevieve seizes the opportunity to flee into the woods, while the Lady retreats back into the farmhouse and hides in a chest freezer. The Demon eventually finds her and shoots her in the arm, and handcuffs her to the chest before calling fellow sheriff Pete and his deputy, Gale, for backup. The Lady tells the Demon she had always hoped to die like
Gary Gilmore
Gary Mark Gilmore (born Faye Robert Coffman; December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal who gained international attention for demanding the implementation of his death sentence for two murders he had admitted to committing ...
, and tearfully confesses that, during their earlier sexual encounter, she felt a fleeting moment of true love for him. She then sprays him with a can of Genevieve's
bear spray
Bear spray is a specific aerosol spray bear deterrent, whose active ingredients are highly irritant capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, that is used to deter aggressive or charging bears.
History
Capsaicin bear spray was developed in the m ...
. A struggle ensues during which the Lady bites into the Demon's neck, tearing into his
carotid artery Carotid artery may refer to:
* Common carotid artery, often "carotids" or "carotid", an artery on each side of the neck which divides into the external carotid artery and internal carotid artery
* External carotid artery
The external carotid arte ...
, causing him to bleed to death. As he dies, she steals his concealed pistol.
Pete and Gale arrive at the house, and find the Lady lying handcuffed to the freezer with her pants pulled down. She claims the Demon, high on cocaine, kidnapped her and took her to the farmhouse to rape and murder her, unaware that the home was occupied. Pete is skeptical of the scene and insists that the homicide unit investigate before they free her, but Gale convinces him that the Lady should receive immediate medical attention. As the officers escort the Lady by car toward town, Genevieve appears along the road and flags them down, but the Lady shoots her before she can explain what happened. The Lady then forces Gale and Pete to give her their guns before ordering Gale out of the car. Pete drives the Lady further down the road before she has him stop so she can consider her next move. When Pete asks her why she kills, she tells him that she sometimes "doesn't see humans, just devils" before shooting him in the head.
The Lady stumbles on foot further down the road, when another woman driving a truck picks her up. When the Lady draws her pistol, the driver returns fire, shooting the Lady. The driver calls police from her cell phone, explaining she just shot a stranger in self-defense and that she is going to bring her to the local hospital. As the driver continues down the road, the Lady looks on, hesitant on pulling out another gun she carries on the driver, until she loses consciousness and dies.
Cast
Screenplay
Writer-director
JT Mollner
JT Mollner is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, entrepreneur, and former actor best known for his feature film directorial debut ''Outlaws and Angels''. The film earned accolades at Sundance in 2016 for Mollner's use of ...
conceived of ''Strange Darling'' in 2021 as the film industry began to emerge from the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. Within six months, he had completed the script and begun shooting, making it the fastest film production process he had ever experienced.
Mollner described the writing process as the easiest he had encountered in his career. He explained that this screenplay "kind of wrote itself," attributing its fluidity to the extensive time he had spent conceptualizing the project prior to writing.
Elaborating on the concept, Mollner stated: "I was drawn to the image of this
final girl
The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including ' ...
running through the woods. And I kept seeing that, and I knew it was a trope, except the way I saw it was there was dressing on the image that I saw, that that made it unique to me, the scrubs and the music and the frame rate, the slow motion I wanted to shoot, and the lens. I had this very stylized image in my head, but I wanted to make sure, beyond just style, there was some story here, or a unique side of a character we could show that we hadn't seen in other films, not just horror films, but films about people who are being pursued or in distress."
[
Upon completion of the script, Mollner received three different offers from various companies. They met with ]Miramax
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was initially a lea ...
first, where Mollner recalled, "In the room at Miramax, I was about three minutes into my pitch and Bill Block
William Hunt Block (born April 2, 1954) is an American film producer who has been CEO of Miramax since April 2017. His producing credits include '' W.'' (2008), ''District 9'' (2009), '' Fury'' (2014), ''Bad Moms'' (2016), ''Dirty Grandpa'' (2016) ...
said, 'We're making it. It's done. Don't talk to anybody else.'" About three or four weeks later, the casting process commenced.[
The film's chapterized structure was designed to captivate audiences and maintain intrigue. Mollner believed that this narrative approach would appeal not only to those familiar with the script but also to new viewers, as it encourages curiosity about the unfolding story: "The reveals of the chapterized structure immediately draw you in. I assume that it also had an appeal to a stranger who would pick up this script and say, 'I want to know what happens next.'"][
The director has neither confirmed nor denied if the film is based on real events, saying "perhaps" it is.][ However, at the end of the credits there is the standard text: "The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."
]
Production
Miramax announced the commencement of filming in the summer of 2022 in the Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...
area. The film was produced by Bill Block, Steve Schneider, and Roy Lee
Roy Lee (born March 23, 1969) is an American film producer. Lee's production company, Vertigo Entertainment, has a first-look deal with Warner Bros.
Early life
Lee was born in 1969 at Wyckoff Heights Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York, to Korean p ...
, with cinematography by Giovanni Ribisi
Antonino Giovanni Ribisi (; born December 17, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the TV series ''Sneaky Pete'' and the films ''Avatar'' (2009), '' Lost in Translation'' (2003), '' Ted'' (2012) and its sequel ''Ted 2'' (20 ...
. Ribisi is also credited as a producer (as he donated his own personal equipment to the film production) and has a cameo. He used 35 mm film for the shooting.[
The production spanned 32 days and operated on a budget between $4–10 million, with some scenes shot in the ]Mount Hood National Forest
The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River valley. The Forest extends south from the Columbia River Gorge across more than of ...
.
The production faced significant challenges, shutting down two days into filming due to negative feedback from film executives, who stated “we hate everything about what you're sending us. We're not enjoying this at all. And we're not sure if this is going to work.” Executives also asked that Willa Fitzgerald be recast.[ Mollner described this experience as “traumatic,” fearing that a permanent shutdown would jeopardize his future prospects as a filmmaker. Producers Lee and Schneider argued that the financiers resume production, stressing that millions had already been spent and that “We're either going to do ]he movie
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
this way or not do the movie at all.”[ Due to the almost week-long shutdown during filming and resulting budgetary constraints, a major river ]set piece
In film production, a set piece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires complex logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term is often also used more broadly to describe a sequence in which the film-maker's ...
was cut.[
After filming wrapped, tensions continued over the film’s non-linear narrative structure. Without Mollner’s knowledge, Miramax hired another editor to recut the film as a linear story. Mollner told Miramax CEO Bill Block that he would have his name removed from the film if it were released in sequence and even went as far as to remove it during his own cut of the test screening.][ ]Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Sara Cornilia Haddish (born December 3, 1979) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. After guest-starring on several television series and lead role on a cable drama, Haddish gained prominence for her role as Nekeisha Williams on ...
, an acquaintance of Mollner, viewed an early cut of his version and also argued that Block accept Mollner's version.[
In accordance with his contract, Mollner was granted a test screening of his cut. Following a highly successful audience response, Block ultimately granted Mollner the final cut and later apologized to Mollner for the difficult production.][
]
Release
The film had its world premiere on September 22, 2023, at Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Giant'' and ''Secondhand Li ...
held in Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
. In February 2024, Magenta Light Studios acquired North American distribution rights to the film.
An early access screening took place at select U.S. theaters on August 14, 2024, followed by an exclusive live-streamed Q&A session from the AMC Lincoln Square 13 Theater with writer-director Mollner, cinematographer Ribisi, and star Fitzgerald, moderated by Carla Gugino
Carla Gugino (; born August 29, 1971) is an American actress. After appearing in ''Troop Beverly Hills'' (1989) and '' This Boy's Life'' (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the ''Spy Kids'' trilogy (2001 ...
. The film opened in Australia on August 22, 2024,[ followed by a wide U.S. theatrical release][ on 1,133 screens on August 23, 2024.
''Strange Darling'' was released on VOD on October 1, 2024 via ]STX Entertainment
STX Entertainment is a mini-major American entertainment and media company. Founded in March 2014 by film producer Robert Simonds, the studio produces film, television, and digital media projects.
In April 2020, STX announced that it would mer ...
.
Reception
Box office
, the film has grossed $4.9 million worldwide. In the United States and Canada, it earned $1.1 million from 1,135 theaters in its opening weekend.
Critical response
Thomas Floyd of ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' praised the film's performances and Ribisi's cinematography. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' similarly praised the film, writing:
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
's Alison Foreman awarded the film an A rating, concluding:
American filmmaker J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' Fo ...
stated:
Accolades
References
External links
*
*
*
Strange Darling
' at Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000.
The website provide ...
*
*
{{Saturn Award for Best Thriller Film
2023 films
2023 independent films
2023 thriller films
2020s American films
2020s English-language films
2020s serial killer films
American films about revenge
American independent films
American nonlinear narrative films
American serial killer films
American thriller films
BDSM in films
English-language crime films
English-language independent films
English-language thriller films
Films about casual sex
Films about drug use in the United States
Films about police officers
Films set in 2020
Films set in forests
Films set in motels
Films set in Oregon
Films shot in Portland, Oregon
Miramax films
Saturn Award–winning films