SPOILER SPECIAL
Strange Darling
DIRECTOR THE BEST BITS OF HIS TWISTY THRILLER JT MOLLNER ON
WORDS NICK DE SEMLYEN
IN LATE JULY, many people heard about Strange Darling for the first time, when horror master Stephen King tweeted about it, twice. He called it “a clever masterpiece”, before adding, “I wish I could say more… but it’s one of those films that’s too clever to spoil, so best to say nothing.” He was right: JT Mollner’s cat-andmouse serial-killer thriller is near-impossible to describe in advance without ruining its bleak, sneaky surprises. But now the cat and mouse are out of the bag, we called Mollner to probe him on all the film’s twists and turns.
TRUE OR FALSE
Before the action begins, text scrolls down the screen, establishing that we’re about to learn about “the most prolific and unique American serial killer of the 21st century”. We also learn that Strange Darling is based on true events. Apparently. “Who isn’t influenced by the Coen Brothers?” laughs Mollner of the Fargo-esque fake-out. “I remember hearing that Fargo was a true story from my dad, who’d just gone to see it. He was like, ‘You have to see this movie, because if it wasn’t true, it would be ridiculous.’” Some people, he says, have come away believing Strange Darling is a quasi-documentary, something he doesn’t want to dispel completely. “There’s much more truth to this than there was to Fargo. It’s closer to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I’ve tried not to talk too much about it, because I do like that discourse.”