Writer-director JT Mollner ‘s “ Strange Darling ” is one of the best American genre films in years, an electrifying thriller that’s in the same league as John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” the Coen brothers’ “Blood Simple,” and Quentin Tarantino ‘s “Reservoir Dogs” when it comes to reinventing old traditions and making them feel startlingly new again. It’s a film best entered cold, since its surprises — of which there are many — are among its greatest pleasures, but it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the movie takes the “final girl” convention of slasher films like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th” and breathes exhilarating new life into it. “I was like, what can we do with the final girl that gives her more depth?” Mollner told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast .
“That peels layers of her psyche away and shows us something more? I started getting really interested in archetypes from my favorite genre films, movies like “Duel.” I didn’t want to do a traditional serial killer movie, even though I love those movies, just like I don’t want to make a gangster movie because ‘Goodfellas’ is already out there, right?” Mollner found that the key was beginning his movie where most other horror movies end, with the image of the final girl running through the forest away from her killer. From there he put the story together out of order, so that when the audience experiences it it’s in chapter.