What could have been a stylish, provocative thriller ultimately gets derailed by its bad-faith gender politics.
Strange Darling is a question that asks the Twitter-misogynist’s favorite question: but what if [insert violent or abusive dynamic between genders] were the other way around? The movie’s concept itself isn’t the weak point. A man (the Demon) and a woman (the Lady) in a car late at night, post-bar, clearly interested in each other and toying with the idea of going home together. The Lady expresses an interest in BDSM roleplay and asks the Demon to indulge her. What follows in the motel room is some of the film’s most intriguing material: as she’s tied up, we see the Lady slip between performance and sincerity—begging, pleading, then suddenly snapping out of it to coach the Demon through the scene.
Both Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner give layered performances that keep the viewer off balance. We know, because the plot is told out of order, that this encounter all goes south, so the tension doesn’t hinge on what is going to happen, but how it’s all going to play out and who’s really in control. The emotional back-and-forth, the shifting power dynamics, the blurred line between fear and fantasy.
We find out the Lady is a serial killer who targets straight men. After the Demon escapes, a cat-and-mouse chase unfolds through the woods. It’s around this point that the movie stops being fun. Once he finds her hiding in a farmhouse and handcuffs her to a freezer, the film decides to lean into false rape accusations. It’s a move that immediately drags the story into reactionary territory and undercuts any nuance it had earned. There’s a pointed scene where the sheriff and his female deputy argue over whether to believe her and she makes a solid case for why survivors should be trusted… only for the film to confirm that the Lady is lying. Technically, the film looks great. But using a false accusation as the Lady’s final tactic flattens the layered power dynamics that made the earlier scenes compelling.