Strange Darling is a 2023 American thriller film written and directed by JT Mollner and starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr. Set in rural Oregon, the film focuses on a man and woman who have a one-night stand that devolves into a cat-and-mouse game of murder.

It is divided into six chapters in nonlinear order, and presented as a dramatization of the pinnacle of a serial killer's years-long murder spree in the Western United States.

[4] Strange Darling was shot on 35 mm film on location in Oregon in the summer of 2022 by Giovanni Ribisi, marking his debut as a cinematographer.

It premiered at the 2023 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 23, 2024, by Magenta Light Studios.

In rural Hood River County, Oregon, a woman ("the Lady") meets a man ("the Demon") and the two go to a local motel to have sex.

Prior to renting a room, the Lady explains to the Demon the risks women take engaging in such behavior, and makes him answer whether or not he is a serial killer.

After he says no, the Lady agrees to proceed, and asks that she and the Demon engage in hyperrealistic sadomasochistic roleplay in which he pretends to be a murderer, and she his victim.

When the Lady begins acting cold and denies the Demon sex, she reveals that she has in fact dosed him with ketamine, which renders him severely sedated.

The Demon eventually finds her and shoots her in the arm, and handcuffs her to the chest before calling fellow sheriff Pete and his deputy, Gale, for backup.

The Lady tells the Demon she had always hoped to die like Gary Gilmore, and tearfully confesses that, during their earlier sexual encounter, she felt a fleeting moment of true love for him.

Pete is skeptical of the scene and insists that the homicide unit investigate before they free her, but Gale convinces him that the Lady should receive immediate medical attention.

He explained that this screenplay "kind of wrote itself," attributing its fluidity to the extensive time he had spent conceptualizing the project prior to writing.

And I kept seeing that, and I knew it was a trope, except the way I saw it was there was dressing on the image that I saw, that that made it unique to me, the scrubs and the music and the frame rate, the slow motion I wanted to shoot, and the lens.

Mollner believed that this narrative approach would appeal not only to those familiar with the script but also to new viewers, as it encourages curiosity about the unfolding story: "The reveals of the chapterized structure immediately draw you in.

The website's consensus reads: "JT Mollner delivers a thrillingly unexpected and electric ride with two breakout performances by Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner in Strange Darling.

[20] Thomas Floyd of The Washington Post praised the film's performances and Ribisi's cinematography, describing it as a "sleek thriller" and "a parable about preying on female trust and vulnerability.

"[21] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times similarly praised the film, writing: 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.

[22] IndieWire's Alison Foreman awarded the film an A rating, concluding: Electric and unforgettable, Strange Darling lives up to its maddening moniker.