Strange Darling (2023): review

Strange Darling completely caught me off guard. I thought I was getting a conventional serial-killer thriller. Instead, it is a devilishly clever genre mind-bender that refuses to wear any of the expectations we bring to it.

It starts from a situation most people recognize, or at least fear: you meet someone, the chemistry is there, you end up in bed — but what if the other person is not who they appear to be? The story unfolds across six chapters, arranged out of chronological order like a mosaic. That is not an empty formal trick. It is a calculated way of repeatedly knocking us off balance.

At the centre are the Lady and the Demon. Willa Fitzgerald makes the Lady difficult to grasp from the beginning: seductive, controlled, vulnerable, then suddenly brutal. I underestimated her at first, which is precisely the point. The character is designed to play with our gaze. Kyle Gallner's Demon initially looks like the dangerous, dominant man. As we learn more, those roles begin to shift. A major turn changes the meaning of what came before and exposes how readily we trust familiar images.

The film's audiovisual force is remarkable. Shot on 35 mm film, Strange Darling looks stunning. Every scene feels composed, every colour contributes. The imagery suggests a neo-western, while the storytelling feels modern, bold and uncompromising. JT Mollner throws us into events and makes us assemble their connections for ourselves. I like that confidence. It is daring, and it asks something of the audience.

There are weaknesses. Some chapters revisit material unnecessarily, and the pacing is not always ideal. The middle section becomes a little too absorbed in its own structure. The big revelation is powerful, but the momentum drops afterwards. The themes sometimes stay closer to the surface than I would like, particularly because the film has the potential to go deeper.

I can forgive those weaknesses because so much else works. Strange Darling does not simply tell a cat-and-mouse story; it takes that form apart. It shows how easily perception can be manipulated, how dangerous our assumptions are and how a seemingly ordinary encounter can conceal an abyss. Even supporting characters such as the older hippie couple add an unexpected, bizarre humanity. This is a thriller that made me reconsider how I was watching it.