Strange Darling Filmmakers on Bringing the Twisted Tale to Life

Writer/director JT Mollner and director of photography Giovanni Ribisi reveal their process.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

One of the more talked-about titles out of last year's Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas was writer/director JT Mollner's Strange Darling, which is finally being released in theaters. Despite nearly a year having passed since its initial screening, fans have been so committed to supporting the feature that they've kept a tight lid on all of the film's twists and turns, and Strange Darling has even earned praise from Stephen King, who called it "really terrific" and a "clever masterpiece." Strange Darling is finally set to land in theaters nationwide on Friday, August 23rd.

The film opens by stating that the experience is based on the true events of a serial killer who was apprehended in Oregon. Mollner recently explained to ComicBook how he landed on this specific setting, as the Pacific Northwest has become a go-to destination for tales of terror.

"Oregon became the perfect place because we knew that the aesthetic, there was a very specific aesthetic that was in the script from the very beginning as far as locations go. Twin Peaks was baked into me as I was writing this. I'd just gotten done the year before with the new season, and I really liked how it felt," Mollner expressed. "I was thinking about forest movies and movies that took place in green, and the movies that I liked, a lot of them inspired the narrative here. Movies like the neo-noirs of the '90s, like Red Rock West and U-Turn and all those movies, a lot of those were done in the desert. So I thought, what a cool thing, to do this kind of movie in the forest. We knew we wanted to find that thing, and we looked a little bit in California, and then my producing partner, Chris [Ivan Cevic] said, he talked to the studio and he said, 'I've heard that they're really film-friendly in Oregon.' I'd never been there, so we went up there and scouted for about a week."

He continued, "So we went up to Oregon and looked and the ecosystem there is just incredible. As you go towards the coast and things get more jungly and overgrown and things look so exotic, you can get that look from the forest or you can go towards Mount Hood and get a more traditional large trunk, a little dryer, and just an alpine look. We were really looking for a specific type of forest and we ended up finding it there, and we found our farmhouse there. It ended up being just the perfect place creatively to shoot the film. And instead of trying to make it be Maine or some other place, we just leaned into it. I said, 'This area in Oregon is so intriguing, let's just make the movie take place here.'" 

In Strange Darling, nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. Written and directed by JT Mollner (Outlaws & Angels), Strange Darling stars Willa Fitzgerald (The Goldfinch, Reacher), Kyle Gallner (Smile, Dinner in America), Ed Begley Jr. (Better Call Saul, A Mighty Wind), and Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, Insidious).

Actor Giovanni Ribisi both produced the film and stepped behind the camera to serve as the director of photography. Much like the film opening with a preamble about the setting of the story, it confirms how it was shot on 35mm.  

"When you have celluloid, it has that latitude and that breadth to allow that saturation," Ribisi shared of the importance of shooting on film stock. "This was very important for us in making this. We have so much content shot digitally now, and it is just not the same, but that's part of it. You can't push the colors, and so it was really a creative choice that always goes back to character and the journey that they go on."

Speaking of things going back to the characters, the entire experience hinges on the performances of Fitzgerald and Gallner, and while horror fans know Gallner from The Haunting in Connecticut, Smile, and Scream, it's Fitzgerald who goes to frantic and frightening places in her performance.

"I'd seen her in a movie that I really liked called The Goldfinch, and I remembered her from that film, but it didn't make me want to put her in this film because the characters were totally different," Mollner recalled of casting Fitzgerald. "We were looking to see who was going to play those roles, and one of the things I did that I always do is call Christy Hall. She's an agent at Paradigm who I really get along with and trust, and she recommended a number of people, and we were talking about a number of people. Then one day on the phone, she said, 'Listen, are you familiar with Willa Fitzgerald? She'd be perfect for this.'"

He continued, "I said, 'Oh, I remember her from The Goldfinch,' but I wasn't really familiar with much else. She was on the number one show on Amazon at the time. So everybody else in my family, everybody knew her quite well from Reacher. Roy Lee, our producer, was a big fan of hers from Reacher. Steve Bellamy, our friend at Kodak, was obsessed with Reacher. I said, 'Okay, I better watch this.' I started watching her in that, and I didn't want to audition her. She had so much work available for me to look at, but I got to the point where I thought maybe I would read her if she was willing because I couldn't really see it yet. I could see that she had this great ability, but I didn't know if she had all the pieces. Then my editor called me one day and said, 'Have you ever heard of Willa Fitzgerald?' And I was like, 'It's weird. We're actually looking at her for this role right now.' And he said, 'Well, I'm cutting a movie right now, and she's just lighting up the screen.'"

Not only was Fitzgerald's casting a case of serendipitous timing, but also a case of convenient locations.

"He lives four houses down from me, so I walked down to his place ... I ran down to his place because he said I had to get over there fast. I went inside and I watched the footage and she was so good in it that I decided in that moment that she was right for the role," the filmmaker pointed out. "But, of course, we had to meet, and when we met, she was so devoted to the character already, and she loved The Lady so much, and she related to The Lady and found things that she could feel empathy for and connect with, and I just knew she was it."

Mollner continued, "Giovanni was on board, and then Roy Lee was already on board with her, he already liked her. And then Steven Schneider got on board, our producers, and we all went to Bill Block at Miramax and said, 'Can you approve this actor?' We cast her and it was great. Then we found Kyle in a similar way, but he'd done things a little closer to what we wanted him to do here in this explosive and aggressive role. And so I saw Dinner in America and was sold. It's really good. The two of them were cast and they are the pillars of the film. I think no matter how great the cinematography is or how good the script ends up being or anything, if those two roles don't work, the movie does not work. So I'm really, really grateful that we found them."

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Strange Darling lands in theaters on August 23rd.

Are you looking forward to the movie? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror! 

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