Direction: JT Mollner
Country: USA
JT Mollner delivers a sledgehammer blow to the audience with his sophomore feature, Strange Darling, a violent, electrifying, and psychologically twisted thriller designed to shock and unsettle. Shot in 35mm and presented in six non-linear chapters that subvert conventional thriller narratives, the film unfolds in rural Oregon in the 1970s, carving a bloody path while generating palpable suspense and a constant sense of dread.
Darkly humorous and perversely amusing, the film provokes queasiness and anxiety, ensnaring viewers in a tangled web of questions about motivations and personality disorders. The vicious game is rendered with sharp close-ups, unexpected twists, and appropriate use of light, sound, and editing. Mollner reveals this routine inclination to extract poetic resonance from moments of pain and bloodshed—an artfully conceived exercise in disturbance, but not particularly cerebral. Still, the film succeeds by refusing to let the audience catch their breath, compelling them to accept it on its own, wild terms.
Without revealing the serial killer’s past, Strange Darling would form a compelling triptych with Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (2017) and Ti West’s MaXXXine (2024). It’s a visceral, provocative, darkly feminist thriller that occasionally laces its brutality with humor. Willa Fitzgerald (The Goldfinch, 2019) seizes her moment to shine, but it’s Kyle Gallner (Dinner in America, 2020) who truly stands out. A special mention goes to Giovanni Ribisi, the former actor and first-time cinematographer, for his impressive work behind the camera.
