Strange Darling: "Did you know it was filmed in 35mm?"

((Spoilers Ahead! Warning: brief mention of assault and sexual violence in the context of the film)) The film tells a thrilling and suspenseful story about a one night stand that uses the audience's expectations against them when the victim of the violence is the man instead of the woman. Writer and director J.T. Mollner cleverly structures the movie to mislead the viewers through careful use of framing, perspective, and ambiguity. However, the subversion of our expectations is the only memorable aspect of the film. After the film reveals the true villain of the story, there's no other intriguing information to add more drama, interest, or a deeper understanding of the main character.

It is all a retrospection, but purposely out of order and the characters don't have names, except for the protagonist whom later people call the Electric Lady. The film starts with the woman running towards the camera bleeding from the side of her face and looking scared. The following scene reinforces her role as a victim when she's driving away from a man in hot pursuit. He fires a gun at her and her car crashes. Then she runs away in the woods bringing us back to the first image. All of these scenes imply the same message: a violent man hunts an injured and scared woman. However, the film informs viewers that the scenes are not in order by starting with chapter 3 instead of chapter 1. Therefore, there's a clear division between what's suggested and what's actually happening in the story.

The director conveys the same suggestion through the framing of the man in the motel scene. It is a very simple image that shows him strangling the woman in the motel bedroom: his profile looks down and his arm muscles are flexing as he uses force; but while the image only shows him, the viewers hear a female whimper outside the frame which can only belong to the female character. We complete the image in our minds and read this as an assault. However, as the film shows more chapters, we learn that she has a kink with strangulation during sex and he stops when she uses the safe word.

All of this is clever and carefully planned, resulting in a calculated subversion about a female serial killer exploiting the trust women have for each other and the normalcy of women being victims of violence. On the other hand, there's little satisfaction when the female villain has no nuances. The only understanding of her happens when she says, "I sometimes see people, and sometimes see demons." Later in the film, she sees her own reflection, which may mean that she also sees herself as a demon and yet, she never kills herself. This adds more ambiguity than a personality. Whatever humanity the character has is only revealed through facial expressions from the actress Willa Fitzgerald, who remarkably brings forward subtle yet sympathetic emotions (not written in the script).

The Lady goes on a nonsensical killing spree, which might also be the pattern of a serial killer, but that alone does not provide an interesting story. She kills the amusing, elderly, hippie couple after trying to help her, which indicates she is mentally unstable and has no moral code. However, the film tries to create so much ambiguity that there's nothing else to look forward to or uncover after the big reveal has already happened. The filmmakers relied too heavily on the twist (and that it's shot on 35 mm!) that the ending felt like a slow death (literally and metaphorically). If there is anything to be gleaned, perhaps it is that the only way to stay safe in a nonsensical and violent world is to always be on guard and aware of one's biases, like the woman at the end, who, after offering help to the Lady, deals the killing blow. But to re-examine this film too closely, to strip away its style and flashiness, is to reveal the lack of substance beneath.