Strange Darling(2024)

Independent

R
1h 37m
- Horror
- Thriller

Release Date: Aug 23, 2024 | Wide

Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree.

Releases

Original Release | Aug 23, 2024

Box Office

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$1,142,928
Total US & Canada:
$3,083,595
Total International
$679,134
Total Worldwide:
$3,762,729

Director & Top Cast

JT Mollner
Director

Willa Fitzgerald
The Lady

Kyle Gallner
The Demon

Madisen Beaty
Gale

Bianca A. Santos
Tanya

Steven Michael Quezada
Pete

Ed Begley Jr.

Frederick

Barbara Hershey

Genevieve

Denise Grayson

Libby

Eugenia Kuzmina

Beth

Duke Mollner

Roughneck

Sheri Foster

The Driver

Andrew John Segal

Steve

Jason Patric

True Crime Narrator

Giovanni Ribisi

Art Pallone

Robert Craighead

Mitchell Mahoney

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

In rural Hood River County, Oregon, a woman ("the Lady") meets a man ("the Demon") and the two go to a local motel to engage in a one-night stand. 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 hyper realistic sadomasochistic role play in which he pretends to be a murderer, and she his victim. After hours of role playing, the Lady insists the two use cocaine before engaging in intercourse, to which the Demon agrees. When the Lady begins acting coolly and denies the Demon sex, she reveals that she has in fact dosed him with teaming, which renders him severely sedated.The Lady-in fact a prolific serial killer herself, deemed "the Electric Lady" by the media-carves the initials of her moniker into the Demon's chest. While rifling through his belongings, she discovers a law enforcement badge, revealing that he is a police officer. The Lady prepares to stab the Demon to death, but as he regains his faculties, he retrieves his concealed pistol and shoots her ear off. The Lady flees the motel in a stolen car after stabbing the desk clerk to death, and is pursued by the Demon in his truck. On a rural stretch of road, he shoots at the vehicle, causing her to crash and flee on foot into the woods.The Lady stumbles upon the farmhouse of two eccentric hippie doomsday preppy's, Frederick and Genevieve, who take her in. While Genevieve goes to retrieve medicine for the Lady, Frederick attempts to phone the police, but the Lady kills him and forces Genevieve outside. The Demon arrives on the property with his rifle. Genevieve seizes the opportunity to flee into the woods, while the Lady retreats back into the farmhouse and hides in a chest freezer. 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. She then sprays him with a can of Genevieve's bear spray. A struggle ensues during which the Lady bites into the Demon's neck, tearing into his jugular vein, causing him to bleed to death. As he dies, she steals his concealed pistol.Pete and Gale arrive at the house, and find the Lady lying handcuffed to the freezer with her pants pulled down. She claims the Demon, high on cocaine, kidnapped her and took her to the farmhouse to rape and murder her, unaware that the home was occupied. 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. As the officers escort the Lady by car toward town, Genevieve appears along the road and flags them down, but the Lady shoots her before she can explain what happened. The Lady then forces Gale and Pete to give her their guns before ordering Gale out of the car. Pete drives the Lady further down the road before she has him stop so she can consider her next move. When Pete asks her why she kills, she tells him that she sometimes "doesn't see humans, just devils" before shooting him in the head.The Lady stumbles on foot further down the road, when another woman driving a truck picks her up. When the Lady draws her pistol, the driver returns fire, shooting the Lady. The driver calls police from her cell phone, explaining she just shot a stranger in self-defense, and that she is going to bring her to the local hospital. As the driver continues down the road, the Lady looks on as she slowly loses consciousness and dies in the passenger seat.

Storyline

During the night, a man and a woman talk to each other in his truck in front a motel. They drink and smoke in the car while discussing whether they will have sex or not and the "rules". The woman, who loves kinky sex, asks him whether he is a serial-killer or not and they decide to go to a room. On the next morning, the woman flees from the motel while the man hunts her down. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil