A single line — paraphrased by countless pornos but said verbatim at a key turn in “ Strange Darling ” — unlocks the heart of JT Mollner ’s razor-sharp psychosexual thriller. “I’ve never put it THERE before,” says someone in a scene that shouldn’t be described. This horror movie is the best kept secret to come out of Fantastic Fest 2023 .
Until now, almost everything the public has heard about this magnificent slasher deconstruction was an intentional and ingenious misdirect. From its opaque title to its overly slick poster, this blood-soaked Trojan horse is rarely what you would expect. That’s true even and especially when it’s riffing on iconic tropes.
An excruciating chase film , a terrifying puzzle-box whodunit, and a testament to romanticizing even the darkest cinema in glowing 35mm , “Strange Darling” is an outright triumph. That much you can know now, although the following review treads very carefully to avoid spoilers. Audiences going in with the least knowledge of what you could call a gut-wrenching date night will have the best crack at enjoying this movie in theaters — but there’s more than plot to recommend Magenta Light Studios’ jaw-dropping first feature.
Yes, writer/director Mollner’s exacting script is a lean, mean vivisection of humanity’s never-ending hunt for a serial killer. Told nonlinearly, with chapter names signposting its story out of order, “Strange Darling” plays like an even more volatile “Pulp Fiction,”.