Having a one-night stand with a serial killer is a simple enough set up for conventional genre thrills, but in JT Mollner’s sexy, sadomasochistic “Strange Darling,” a hinge date from hell is only the beginning. We start in the middle, however, as the film’s six-chapter structure is shuffled and presented non-linearly to the audience, allowing Mollner to extract maximum suspense from his seemingly straightforward premise. At every turn, Mollner co-opts, manipulates, and weaponizes audience expectations – both of the genre he’s playing in and the characters in his film – to create a true “the-less-you-know-the-better” thriller. In an effort to preserve the thrilling surprises of “Strange Darling,” this review will remain deliberately vague but will hopefully inspire you to take a chance on one of the year’s most delightful discoveries.

A bleach-blonde woman runs towards the camera, blood dripping from her ear and becoming invisible against her crimson scrubs and cherry-red Doc Marten boots. She is “The Lady,” played by Willa Fitzgerald in the best role of her career. Fitzgerald, who first made a splash in MTV’s better than it had any right to be “Scream” TV series, has some experience in the horror genre. However, she’s up against a true scream king in Kyle Gallner, who portrays “The Demon” – the man from whom The Lady is running. Gallner’s chilling CV includes the reclaimed cult classic “Jennifer’s Body,” the (godawful) remake of “The Nightmare on Elm Street,” and the highest-grossing horror movie of 2022, “Smile.” Gallner even has a “Scream” on his resume, making a brief appearance in Radio Silence’s (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) first Ghostface lega-sequel. His performance in “Strange Darling” eclipses them all.

Gallner’s The Demon stalks his prey with quietly disconcerting intensity. In the film’s more tranquil moments, Gallner’s demeanor radiates suspicion – a type of performance where the audience is holding their breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. When the film shifts into high gear, Gallner becomes truly menacing, relentlessly pursuing Fitzgerald’s character like a deranged bloodhound. But this is truly a two-hander, as the terror Fitzgerald conveys on her face does just as much to make “The Demon” a credible threat as Gallner’s concentrated ferocity. Fitzgerald’s performance feels raw, lending a disturbing verisimilitude to the violence her character encounters. Though she is a seasoned performer, Fitzgerald’s role in “Strange Darling” feels like a breakout, her craft significantly elevated from her previous work. While much of the film requires her to convey fear – her face constantly contorted in a frown and her eyes teetering on the verge of teals – she is also captivatingly seductive, pitifully submissive, and plausibly threatening in her own right when the script demands it.

Rounding out the cast are “the mountain people” (as the title card for the chapter in which they appear dubs them), Genevieve (Barbara Hershey) and Frederick (Ed Begley Jr.). Introduced in a scene featuring the most amusing breakfast ever assembled on film – made with enough butter to clog every artery this side of the Atlantic and drowned in enough syrup to give Mrs. Butterworth’s pause – this couple’s attempt to enter a diabetic coma is interrupted when The Lady comes desperately knocking at their door. This adorably eccentric couple provides a much-needed intermission to “Strange Darling’s” mounting tension, reminding us that comedy and horror can form a beautiful union under the stewardship of a skilled craftsman like Mollner.

But no character is as they seem at first in “Strange Darling,” showcasing the brilliance of Mollner’s out-of-order narrative. The decision to give this thriller the “Pulp Fiction” treatment proves effective, adding complexity with every twist and turn. Each new wrinkle Mollner reveals re-contextualizes the film in real-time. By doing so, Mollner avoids the pitfalls common to this genre and the sense of a foregone conclusion that can choke the life from many thrillers, even as the movie establishes its set-in-stone ending in its opening crawl, which falsely positions the film as a depiction of true crime. If there’s one critique of “Strange Darling”, it’s that the ending does feel a bit prolonged once it finally arrives, but this is a minor flaw in an otherwise exhilarating puzzle box of discoveries. Mollner’s sophomore effort exudes the confidence of a veteran filmmaker and is sure to have movie buffs eagerly awaiting his next project.

The same goes for the ace up “Strange Darling’s” sleeve: beloved actor and first-time cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi. Last seen teasing the next installment of Kevin Costner’s four-part passion project “Horizon: An American Saga,” Ribisi steps behind the camera for “Strange Darling” and proves he’s as competent a director of photographer as he is a screen performer. Ribisi’s camera captures tableaus soaked in neon light, long takes that escalate suspense, and light piercing through cigarette smoke so gorgeously it made this begrudging ex-smoker long for the warm embrace of a dart – all with glorious filmic texture. As a sucker for a split-diopter shot, seeing the way Ribisi employed the technique with such narrative relevance had me levitating in my seat.

Before their one-night last-stand kicks off, an easily dismissible exchange between The Lady and The Demon provides untold insight into the cinematic ethos of “Strange Darling.” As The Demon lights a cigarette, The Lady takes a drag on her e-cig and remarks, with a hint of dissatisfaction about her nicotine delivery of choice, “These are not the same.” In a film that punctuates its opening credits with a title card proudly boasting “SHOT ENTIRELY ON 35MM FILM,” this passive comment about vapes takes on new meaning. As shooting on film begins to go the way of dodo, only a handful of bastions like Nolan, Tarantino and Anderson are still beating the drum. “Strange Darling’s” embrace of the old-school shooting style instills renewed confidence that new voices will rise to champion film stock’s grainy glory. As Mollner deconstructs tired tropes with a modern eye, Ribisi’s vintage camera honors the legacy of the movies “Strange Darling” is building on. For all the exciting things that “Strange Darling” accomplishes, the most commendable is its recognition that, while cheaper and easier, shooting on digital is just not the same.