Strange Darling (2024)

JT Moller's Strange Darling opens with a terrified looking young woman (a brilliant Willa Fitzgerald), clearly in a terrible state, being chased through shrubbery and fields by a man with a shotgun (Kyle Gallner). Right from the off he's channeling Brian De Palma alongside Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)- and he then invokes Tarantino by making it clear the film is going to be told in non-linear sections.

In fact the suggestion of Tarantino is so strong it filled me with dismay for a few minutes, before I settled down and thankfully enjoyed this serial-killer thriller.

Once we've reversed to Chapter One we have some idea of what the initial set up is before we reach the film's opening sequence, but of course nothing is quite as it seems. One of Strange Darling's main problems is that the non-linear set up means that we're constantly waiting for some sort of twist because there isn't much of a plot to speak of. It is, sort of, about a one night stand gone wrong- but credit is due to Moller for not simply doing what you'd expect him to do with this scenario- we've seen that plenty of times over the last decade.

Instead we get a subversive B-movie that reminds you of the exploitational movies of the seventies, to the point that you genuinely expect Tarantino's name to pop up as an executive producer when the credits role. But Moller's film is a more interesting piece than Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse double bill (2007), if perhaps lacking the playful nature of them.

By the time we get to the protracted ending though, things have all got a bit tiresome- mainly due to Moller's insistence that his main character extends his or her stay beyond their welcome, and despite the fact that Strange Darling is only ninety odd minutes long, that's still a meaty time frame to hang a rather flimsy plot on. The film has many plaudits, as well as those who seem offended by the film's sexual politics; an opinion that I personally found rather baffling. If there's a problem with the politics, the film's main fault seems to be that it has a male director- an accusation as flimsy as the film's plot.

Still, Strange Darling kept me entertained and I enjoyed it while it was in front of me. It's well made, well acted and-I may incite disagreement here- well directed. But it's not a huge amount more than that; then again on some level, that might be perfectly fine for what it is. 6.9/10