Strange Darling
Magenta Light Studios | Release Date: August 23, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
2
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesTara BradySep 20, 2024
Horror aficionados will find much to admire, but everything about this wild project defies generic expectations. It’s a thriller; it’s a cat-and-mouse game; it’s a truly messed-up love story. Read full review
100
IndieWireAlison ForemanAug 22, 2024
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. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleCary DarlingAug 21, 2024
All in all, in a time when so many movies evaporate from memory as soon as the credits roll, “Strange Darling” — love it or loathe it — is the kind of film that engenders conversation. Read full review
90
ColliderTaylor GatesAug 22, 2024
Strange Darling is a magic trick, showing you its cards up front and leaving your mind to fill in the blanks while it subtly performs a sleight of hand. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 22, 2024
Playing out in six, ingeniously scrambled chapters, this headlong thriller transforms a simple cat-and-mouse premise — and maybe even a toxic love story — into an impertinent rebuke to genre clichés and our own preprogrammed assumptions. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 20, 2024
Strange Darling is an original, well worth seeing — and then talking about. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversAug 30, 2024
Summer just saved its thrillingest thriller for last. Starring a wow Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald, this cinematic gut punch from JT Mollner brings one day in the romantic twisted love life of a serial killer to vivid life on screen. You won’t know what hit you. Read full review
88
Washington PostThomas FloydAug 23, 2024
Although “Strange Darling” dutifully delivers white-knuckle tension and cinematic panache, Mollner’s savvy script also speaks to the unbalanced power dynamic a woman typically accepts when inviting the advances of an unfamiliar man. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 23, 2024
An electric thriller with blood on its hands, flesh in its mouth, and deviance on its mind. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiz BraunAug 20, 2024
Strange Darling is a thriller structured as a complex series of surprises. Writing anything much about the story runs the risk of spoiling some of those surprises, so this will be a short review. Go and see it. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamSep 19, 2024
Boasting great music cues, vivid 35mm lensing (by, of all people, Avatar actor Giovanni Ribisi, who here makes his classy debut as director of photography), and engaging gender politics that establish Mollner’s interest in more than just the thrill of the chase, Strange Darling is a slick game of cat and mouse. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 19, 2024
It’s in uncompromising bad taste but made with lethal precision and discipline. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenSep 17, 2024
You’ll think you know where this sun-baked serial-killer thriller is going, until you don’t. A nifty, chronologically crafty tale, fuelled by bravura acting by Willa Fitzgerald, it’s a small movie with high impact. Read full review
80
VarietyMichael NordineOct 10, 2023
Writer-director JT Mollner flips the script on this tired genre, crafting the cleverest thriller of its kind in a while with a mighty assist from a pair of killer performances by co-leads Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. Best experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible, Strange Darling demands a bit of patience, but it also rewards it. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 22, 2024
At every point, Strange Darling is a grisly melding of deviously experimental form and terrifying function. Read full review
75
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 20, 2024
Not everything works — for example, there are multiple moments where characters are firing up cigs with Zippo lighters that seem painfully choreographed to look "cool" — but the film is so energetic and intense that it's hard to not go along for the ride. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeAug 16, 2024
Strange Darling is a cunningly devised thriller that wields our assumptions against us like a sharp implement, delighting in making us squirm. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 30, 2024
It matters that the story’s told out of order. It’s great that they landed Hershey and Begley for small but chewy supporting roles. And Fitzgerald’s gamble on her most daring, naked (not quite literally) performance pays off in what could be her break-out role, even if she had a bit of explaining to do to mom and dad when the credits rolled. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 26, 2024
Ultimately, Strange Darling left me with a little “Emperor’s New Clothing” feeling, with all the excitement coming not from the actual story but from the manner in which it is presented. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 17, 2024
The teasing, tricky structure adds intrigue to a fairly rudimentary horror premise and the cinematography – actor Giovanni Ribisi steps behind the camera as the DOP – is suitably strident, with reds and yellows screaming from the screen. Read full review
60
Screen RantAbigail StevensSep 13, 2024
Strange Darling is an effectively disturbing movie, labeled as an erotic thriller, which visualizes some interesting themes even if it distracts from them. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comKatie RifeAug 23, 2024
Strange Darling, J.T. Mollner’s self-consciously edgy gotcha of a serial-killer thriller, is so high on its own cleverness that it never stops to think about what it’s actually saying. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackAug 22, 2024
Fitzgerald gives a strong performance, especially considering the lack of depth her character is afforded, but her impact is drowned out by the film’s truly rancid attempt at upending the gendered inferences that Mollner has staged her character within. Read full review
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