It’s been a few days since I’ve seen J.T. Mollner’s Strange Darling, and I simply cannot get it out of my head. This is a twisted thriller that will leave a lasting impact on you for days to come, and in a cinematic landscape such as this, that’s a huge deal!

Strange Darling is definitely one of those movies where the less you know the better. As such, I’m going to try and keep things as spoiler free as possible. When or if I can’t, I will definitely specify with a spoiler warning. For the most part, I’m going to try to convey how good this movie is without getting into too many details about it for you.

With that said, let me start out by saying this movie is terrific! If you’re feeling Tarantino-withdrawal, then Mollner is going to scratch that itch. That’s because he’s incredibly talented, with a script and editing that is fantastically well thought out and incredibly subversive. This is a bloody, tense, thriller with so many fantastic twists, that never fails to engage you by the jugular and never let go.

The film follows the events surrounding a toxic one-night stand, that results in a brutal cat-and-mouse chase between its two protagonists. Anchoring the film is Willa Fitzgerald (The Fall of the House of Usher) and Kyle Gallner. I’m going to leave the plot summary to that alone.

First off, the movie’s MVP is Fitzgerald. Given her work earlier this year with The Fall of the House of Usher and now Strange Darling, I can officially declare her one of the finest working young actresses to emerge in the past few years. She’s been in the scene for some time, but she absolutely deserves to blow up bigger! Fitzgerald had to perform this multi-layered role in incredibly believable ways, and is able to keep pace with the insane twists this movie has to offer — especially since those twists hinge on her character. And she pulls it off without batting a single eyelash. I bought into every aspect of her multifaceted performance with every line delivery and facial expression, because of her dedication and conviction for this role. It’s not an easy performance to pull off, but she manages to do so seamlessly.

Gallner also has to pull off a similar performance and does so just as well. The only reason Fitzgerald outshines him is because the film hinges on her character so much. However, Gallner also manages to play on our expectations of his character, after seeing him in creepy performances like Beaver in Veronica Mars or The Passenger, to the greatest potential. As the movie progresses, we are left all the more surprised at its results because of how he cleverly sets everything up for his character.

The performances genuinely are fantastic in this movie, but they wouldn’t matter nearly as much if the film wasn’t just excellently written and executed. Mollner goes for an incredibly gritty non-linear approach for this movie. The film is divided into six chapters, and we start out with Chapter 3, before skipping around and seeing the events unfold backwards and forwards. Doing so makes the twists and turns of the journey much more palpable than a film like Longlegs attempted to do with its chapter structure. Not that there’s anything wrong with what Longlegs did, mind you. It’s just that Strange Darling‘s chapter structure feels a lot more necessary for the ultimate payoff for this movie. It’s a lot more fast-paced and better constructed and written overall. Mollner’s approach requires us to buy into one aspect of the narrative so he can pull the rug out from under us, and subvert the thriller genre completely. As such, it definitely leaves more of an impact than most modern-day thrillers.

Like Longlegs, Mollner is also chooses to shoot the film in a grainy, almost pulpy, snuff film style that pays homage to grindhouse films of yore. Like Tarantino’s style, it’s fast paced, violent as hell, and quite chaotic. But that’s a great thing for this movie. The grainy, ’70s-style schlock immerses you in the potential danger and possible blood-soaked shocks along the way. That’s thanks to the beautiful cinematography from, surprisingly enough, actor and cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi(!), who makes every scene feel tense and dirty. He also has such a terrific eye for framing. This is meant to be an ugly movie about an ugly situation, and Mollner and Ribisi lovingly embrace that, which is infectious. But Ribisi still manages to have gorgeous shots in spite of the ugly situations. It’s astonishingly impressive.

I would definitely like to take this time to say that this movie definitely needed to come with a trigger warning. There’s a lot of abuse and a lot of raw, brutal scenes that may upset many. This is not meant to be a happy movie with a happy ending, I can tell you that. Aspects of this movie may create bits of controversy in the way that the Tarantino-penned Natural Born Killers did. So be warned, this movie has several scenes that are difficult to watch/get through.

On the whole though, Strange Darling is absolutely one of the biggest surprises of the year. This is a small movie, which didn’t have the same level of buzz as Longlegs, but manages to surpass it as a grindhouse-throwback thriller in every way. Equally complimenting the surprise of this film are the twists within it, thanks to a clever and well constructed script, and brilliant, ambitious direction from Mollner. And equally as unassuming are the performances from its highly underrated stars, Fitzgerald and Gallner. My hope is that Strange Darling will end up being discovered and revered as the years pass, because one things for sure: they don’t make thrillers like this anymore!

Overall Score: A –

Strange Darling is now playing in select theaters now! Do not miss it, and do not spoil it for yourselves! You won’t be disappointed!