By “This is a dramatization of the true story, of the final known killings of the most prolific and unique American serial killer of the 21st century.” That’s a hell of a way to start. This is the 1st trailer for Strange Darling.
The above narration plays as a battered young Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) flees for her life through the woods. We soon rewind to the previous days, capturing brief flashes of the Lady’s late-night fling with an awkward stranger (Kyle Gallner) that quickly turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse game filled with violence, obsession, and a whole lot of blood.
Strange Darling (2024) – source: Miramax
In disorienting quick cuts, we see flashes of a late-night rendezvous, the Lady being chased through the woods, the stranger stalking his prey with a shotgun, and various creepy vignettes of an old dead-eyed small town couple. The trailer ends with the Lady saying “I want something intimate, something…. romantic.” Something tells me she won’t get her wish.
Horror movies are always tough to market. As most of the most experiential film genres, a horror trailer doesn’t just have to convey plot, but also the movie’s vibe. And by god, the 1st trailer for Strange Darling delivered. The rapid-fire editing, strikingly red color grading, and pulpy line delivery brought forth an assault on the senses. While the plot remains unknown beyond the bare skeleton of a cat-and-mouse serial killer thriller, the film perfectly conveyed itself as an ode to old-school splatter B-movies.
Kyle Gallner has quickly become a modern-day scream king, portraying a dead-eyed killer with an awkward charm. Willa Fitzgerald plays a 21st-century “final girl” type with aplomb, truly selling the sheer panic in her eyes. The two play off each other wonderfully, and if the trailer’s tension escalation mirrors the final film, these two could lead Strange Darling to be one of the most viscerally tense movies in 2024.
Directed by JT Mollner, Strange Darling is scheduled to be released theatrically on August 23, 2024. The film stars Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner in the lead roles.
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