The Best Explanation of Strange Darling | Themes, Ending, Meaning

What is the point of Strange Darling?

Strange Darling is about perception and how quick people are to jump to conclusions based on biases and limited information. The movie portrays that through the dynamic between “The Lady” and “The Demon”. You initially think he’s the monster and she’s the victim, only to realize, nope, it’s the other way around. It’s a check on our assumptions. A reminder that the information contained in a headline or a viral video is often not enough to truly understand a situation. That’s not to say you have to “both sides” every scenario. Just have some awareness about what you know and what you don’t.  

Cast

• The Lady – Willa Fitzgerald
• The Demon – Kyle Gallner
• Genevieve – Barbara Hershey
• Frederick – Ed Begley Jr.
• Pete – Steven Michael Quezada
• Gale – Madisen Beaty
• Driver – Sheri Foster
• Written by – JT Mollner
• Directed by – JT Mollner

Plot Analysis of Strange Darling

Set-up

• Starts in a car, black and white, with Lady, off-camera, asking Demon “Are you a serial killer?” Cuts to him choking her. The use of black and white can seem like nothing more than an artsy choice—but Strange Darling focuses on stories and perception. So the black and white isn’t just about style. It becomes a statement about objectivity, about “truth” and believing that a situation is seemingly “black and white”. The ironic thing is that black and white shots look gray. Gray is another color associated with truth, the complicated middle ground between b&w. André Gide, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, once said that “Gray is the color of truth.” 
• Opening scroll is a fictional summary of “the most prolific and unique American serial killer of the 21st century”. Key thing is how vague the scroll is about gender. Reinforces the idea that the male character is the villain. 
• Cut to “The Lady” running towards the camera. Another scene that plays with perception. On initial viewing, you think she’s the victim, since the opening scene seemingly established the male character as a killer. We even get the on-screen text saying “Kyle Gallner as The Demon”. But when you know the twist,  the direct cut, from the opening scroll about “the most prolific killer” directly to the first shot of the Lady, comes off as a bit of a wink-wink-nudge-nudge. It was her all along. 
• Even the names play with perception. “The Lady” seems innocent. But we know it’s short for “The Electric Lady”. Which isn’t so innocent. And “The Demon” sounds ominous, but it’s because Gallner’s character was a recovering addict who had been sober for a long time. So he’s “The Demon” because he’s high off the cocaine he snorted to counteract the downer given to him by the Lady. “Demon” is a common term used in addiction recovery. 
• Announcement that Strange Darling has 6 chapters. Starts us in the middle of the story, Chapter 3: “Can you Help Me? Please?”
  • The chase defines this chapter. Lady seems innocent, fleeing in her little car from the Demon in a huge truck. Everything so far has set us up to root for her and fear him. Especially the score. 
  • Moment of vulnerability as she hides and cries in the woods. Increases our empathy towards her and sympathy for her. 
  • Arrives at the home of the hippies. Speakers blast a radio show about people encountering sasquatch. Seemingly weird but ties back to the idea of storytelling and what people believe. The sasquatch stuff is ridiculous to most of us. But others take it at face value. 
• Chapter 5: “Here, Kitty, Kitty…”
  • Nothing much to this. Reinforces everything we’ve seen so far. Makes it seem like the Demon took out Frederick. 
  • Demon fires into the freezer the Lady’s hiding in. This spikes our concern for the character, making us think the “villain” took out the “hero”. This establishes an unresolved tension that the film hopes will sustain the viewer throughout a flashback that’s conversation-heavy, action-light. We want to know if she lived or not, how she’ll escape, etc. 

Escalation

• Chapter 1: “Mister Snuffle”
  • We’re back to the opening scene, Demon in the car with Lady, where she asks him if he’s a serial killer. Except this time it’s in color and not black and white. The two met in a bar. He’s separated. She’s looking to have fun. They drove to a motel. Everything is calm and nice. Quite a contrast to the conflict we know these two fall into. 
  • Demon is thoughtful, patient, accommodating. 
  • Lady is shy but increasingly won over by Demon’s charm. Lady gives a big speech about safety. Do you have any idea of the kind of risks a woman like me takes every time she agrees to have a little bit of fun? It’s a goddamn tragedy. Men think that we’re these prudes who don’t like casual sex. Most of us f***ing love casual sex. We just want to know that murder isn’t going to be served on the side. 
  • We arrive at the “Are you a serial killer?” question. Demon says no. We’re supposed to think we know better and doubt him and worry about what Lady’s getting herself into. 
  • Eventually cuts to him choking her (which we saw at the beginning). We’re supposed to think this is real violence. But it becomes apparent this is foreplay. 
  • This is the first change in perception in the film. Something that was “black and white” ends up not being what we thought. Our initial conclusion was wrong.
    • Though you might still be skeptical and think this is just a fake out and the character literally called “The Demon” will eventually reveal himself to be just that. Others will start to question the film’s entire premise so far. If one thing wasn’t what we thought…maybe none of it is what we thought?
  • Situation between them seems to devolve as Demon becomes more aggressive and Lady becomes less interested. We’re supposed to think this is it, this is the turn, that he’s finally showing his true colors. He hits her. He threatens her. She cries. This must be the start of something terrible. Then the Lady says “Mister Snuffleupugus.”
  • We cut back to the car. And they’re discussing how much Lady wants him to roleplay and wants it to be intense. Demon agrees and says he even acted a little bit, which would explain why he’s so convincing in the previous scene.
  • Lady lays out the rules. Don’t tell me when you’re going to turn, just do it. And if I say “no”, you say “yes”. And you push ever harder if I’m, you know, scared or angry. You know, f***ing crying. When Demon says he doesn’t like that, she calls him out and says I can’t imagine consent being any more clear.
  • Again, things weren’t what we thought. Now viewers should start to question the entire dynamic. Is he really as bad as we had thought? Is his pursuit of her in Chapter 3 even legitimate or part of their game?
  • The two have a sweet moment where Lady praises the Demon. But a strange thing happens. As Lady looks at Demon, we see a flash of some monster. It’s something she sees that he’s unaware of. And it affects her deeply. 
  • We immediately cut to Chapter 4. 
• Chapter 4: “The Mountain People”
  • We pick up with Genevieve and Frederick before Lady’s arrival. They’re a happy couple about to have an insane breakfast. Lady shows up shortly after. We pick up where Chapter 3 left off. Lady seems innocent and likable enough. The hippies seem innocent and likable enough. 
  • Frederick pushes back on being called a hippie. Wants to be known as an old biker. Again, a seemingly innocuous moment that comes back to storytelling. In this case, it’s identity and how we define ourselves. Frederick is just Frederick, but it matters to him if he’s thought of as a “hippie” or a “biker”. Can tie this back to the dichotomy between “Lady” and “Electric Lady” or us thinking of the guy as “The Demon” when he’s actually a police officer who seemed pretty decent overall. 
  • Reveal that Lady is the killer. Tries manipulating Genevieve with lines like “I’m not going to kill you. I promise.” Using storytelling to exploit people? It’s something she does multiple times throughout the rest of the movie. 
  • Genevieve runs away. 
• Chapter 2: “Do You Like To Party?”
  • Back in the hotel room. Dynamic has shifted, now that we know how dangerous Lady is. We’re suddenly suspicious of her and possibly worried for Demon. 
  • Demon says, in response to an offer of cocaine, “It’s been a long time since I’ve touched that stuff.” We can see him visibly struggle with his former addiction before he eventually gives in to his demons. Leads directly to her drugging him.
  • Lady breaks everything off. Stops pretending to be a lamb. Turns fully into the Electric Lady. Pulls out knife and taser. Finds Demon outside the room, debilitated from the ketamine she tricked him into snorting. 
  • Plays the song “Love Hurts”. Then carves “EL” into Demon’s chest, over his heart. Says “I’ve never put it there before.” Clearly felt a connection to him. 
  • Looks at Demon’s wallet and sees his police badge. 
  • When she’s about to stab the Demon, he shoots her. She flees. 
  • Lady lies to the man in the next room and plays the victim for the first time. 

Payoff

• Chapter 2: “Do You Like To Party” continued
  • We now know Demon’s the victim and Lady’s the aggressor. At this point, we fully understand why he’s after her. He’s a cop, she’s a dangerous criminal. 
  • When Lady runs into the motel office, we’re no longer ignorant to who she is and what she’s capable of. A direct contrast to earlier when she showed up at the house of the hippies and we hoped they would help her. We roll our eyes at her performance and fear for those who believe her. That fear is justified when she slays the front desk clerk. 
  • Demon does a hella ton of cocaine to counteract the effects of the ketamine. 
  • Nurse tries to leave. Doesn’t want to get involved. Lady starts spinning a yarn again. “I know that was awful. But I had to do it.” Takes the clothes from the nurse. We don’t know if she spared the nurse or not. Drives off in the nurse’s car. Which would bring us back to the beginning of the movie. 
• Chapter 6: “Who’s Gary Gilmore”
  • Highly recommend getting the audiobook (or the regular book) of Executioner’s Song, which is this literary nonfiction account of Gary Gilmore’s life, crimes, and trial. It’s amazing. 
  • Pick back up after Chapter 5, thinking Demon has won. Except Lady is only wounded. He calls for backup. But doesn’t give a full explanation of what happened, only says, “I got myself into a little bit of trouble.” Ties back to the theme of storytelling. Because he didn’t give details, tell the story, his side of the story, the other officers, once they arrive, don’t know what the situation is. 
  • Lady asks why she’s still alive then realizes “you couldn’t do it”. 
  • Lady: I don’t care about jail. I don’t want to die. Isn’t that f***ing funny? Even when we know we’re going to spend the rest of our lives in a tiny little cage, we will fight to stay alive. I used to wonder why people did that, when I watched true crime shows. I thought I’d be like Gary Gilmore. [“Who’s Gary Gilmore?”] He asked for the firing squad. I thought I’d do that, if it came to this. Now I just want three hots and a cot. I planned to do it, man. Love. Doesn’t have to be something that develops. The purest, most primal kind can hit you like a wave. In a moment. Over the course of one night. I felt that for you when you had your hand around my throat. Did you feel it for me? Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and marks. That’s our song. You’ll always think of me when you hear it.
  • Hits him with bear spray. Grabs him in the confusion. Tears his jugular with her teeth. 
  • Hears other cops arrive. So stages the scene to make it look like Demon (real name RC) had been in the midst of assaulting her. 
  • One female cop, Gale, one male cop, Pete. Lady goes full performance. 
  • Pete asks “What happened here?” Gale angrily responds “What do you think happened, Pete? Look at her!” Gale believes the scene as it’s presented to her. Argument between the officers. Pete wants to wait for backup and follow protocol. Gale wants to care for the “victim”.
    • Gale: The VICTIM needs medical attention. Our job is to do what we need to do to keep her alive.
    • Pete: This ain’t my first jar of pickles.
    • G: You know, just because I have a vagina doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to a f***ing thing I have to say. 
    • P: This has nothing to do with your vagina and everything to do with the diapers you were wearing when I cleared my first crime scene. We don’t even know if she’s a victim yet. We have to find that out first. That’s f***ing protocol.
  • Lady fakes seizures, which is pretty hilarious, since we know how big of a liar she is. Causes Pete to agree to transport her. 
  • In the car on the drive down, run into Geneveieve. Lady kills Genevieve. Pete is pissed at Gale. Lady lets Gale go, as a thank you. 
• Epilogue: “The Electric Lady”
  • Pete asks why Lady hurt so many people. She says, “Sometimes, I don’t see humans. I see devils.” That explains what  happened in the hotel room, at the end of Chapter 1. Seconds later, we see her make the same weird face. Then she shoots Pete. So there’s clearly a whole mental illness component to all of this. 
  • Leaves the car. Walks down the road until another car pulls up. Goes full performance mode again. The driver, an older woman, immediately believes Lady and helps her into the truck. 
  • Lady, while looking into the side mirror, sees herself, and has one of those “Don’t see people, see devils” episodes. The heavy electronic music that had consistently played, in chapters 3 and 4, when RC was on screen, now plays for Lady. Inspired by the whole “seeing a demon” thing, Lady pulls a gun on her new would-be savior (or on herself?). But that woman also has a weapon and fires first. We hear her call the cops and report what happened. 
  • Pays off on the motif of people trying to call the cops and Lady stopping them. Someone finally successfully makes the call. 
  • Song about “Better the devil you know” plays as Lady slowly succumbs to her wound. Color drains from the screen as her life slips away. So we end black and white, which brings the movie, visually, full circle. 

Strange Darling’s themes, meaning, ending, real life application

So Strange Darling is pretty obviously about perception. The first half toys with audience perception of the characters and challenges the assumptions we make. “Oh a woman is on the run from a man, he must be the bad guy.” To be fair, if we saw anyone running from a coked up Kyle Gallner, male or female, we’d probably assume they were the victim and Gallner was the bad guy. 

Going from Chapters 3 and 5 back to Chapter 1, JT Mollner allows the viewer to, for a time, feel superior. We initially think RC’s putting on an act. “He’s THE DEMON! Look how tricky he’s being with this whole ‘aw shucks’ nice guy routine!” But ever so slowly, doubt creeps in. Until we eventually realize we had been wrong. Obviously there are the super cynical people who immediately question everything so would, right at the beginning, assume what the twist was. Good for you! But the goal of the film is to have most viewers believe Lady’s a victim and RC’s “The Demon” only to have their minds blown when that’s not the case. 

Once we know the truth. Strange Darling stops trying to manipulate the viewer and instead allows us to feel superior to the characters who don’t know Lady’s evil. The man in the next motel room. The women in the motel lobby. Pete and Gale. The woman in the truck. We go from being like them, on Lady’s side, to knowing better than them. 

How Strange Darling applies to real life

On the broadest level, Strange Darling reminds viewers that you can be fooled. Just because something seems obvious doesn’t mean it is. In real life, most of us don’t have wounded strangers knocking on our front door, asking for help. That’s for entertainment and drama, the cinema of it all. The real world application of Strange Darling’s theme is more about the information we believe. About friends, family, coworkers. But also the rampant misinformation that’s a byproduct of modern news sources and social media.

One of the most popular accounts on Instagram is Deuxmoi. They post celebrity gossip with a disclaimer that “Statements made on this account have not been independently confirmed.” They often post anonymous rumors (blind items) submitted to them via direct messages. Anyone can make up anything and submit it. And if it seems believable, Deuxmoi will post it. There’s a Reddit thread from 2 years ago where someone asked if anyone had ever had Deuxmoi publish a fake tip. 

This was the top comment, from Ok_Sympathy_1302: I’ve mentioned it before on this sub, but during lockdown, my boyfriend sent in an absurd joke story about Tommy Lee Jones walking a dalmatian around rural Ireland. Deuxmoi acted all wise and replied that she’d heard he was filming here (this was early 2021, the entire country had shut down and you couldn’t even buy clothes). She posted it in the sightings and later we saw a journalist on Twitter blasting poor TLJ for travelling to Ireland to walk his imaginary dog. Sorry Mr Jones!

The irony of me sharing that post is that I couldn’t find proof this ever happened. So I might be guilty of what I’m talking about. But I think it illustrates the point. Deuxmoi (or me) shares a fake story. People believe the fake story. And it shapes how they think of a celebrity. There was another gossip site called Lainey Gossip and they had posted a blind item that actress Gretchen Mol had gained career traction by sleeping with Harvey Weinstein. She had to write a whole guest article for The Hollywood Reporter to clear the air. It turns out, she had never even met with Weinstein outside of brief encounters at public events. But many people had believed the rumors and judged her for them. 

Strange Darling captures the experience of getting bits and pieces of a story, spun a certain way, and jumping to conclusions about the people involved. “She must be a lady. He must be a demon.” But then it goes the extra step by giving us all the information so we can watch others make the same mistakes we made. When Gale immediately jumps to Lady’s defense, it can seem ridiculous. But we were the ones doing that for the first 30 minutes of the film. And I think that’s kind of the point. Mollner highlights how when we don’t have all the information, it’s easy to just accept the most obvious version of events. But when we have all the information, the people who fall for it seem like goobers. 

It’s the same thing with the hippies talking about sasquatch. It’s absurd to believe in sasquatch to the degree they do. But they believe it nonetheless. The thing is, we all have sasquatch-like stuff we treat as truth. Not because we’re dummies who don’t know better. But because we hear so many stories that it’s impossible to not believe some of them. It’s a dumb example, but as a kid, I loved wrestling. In 1998, two guys debuted, Edge and Christian. Both had long blonde hair and looked vaguely similar. WWE said they were brothers. That made sense to 11 year old me. I stopped watching in 2000. It wasn’t until about 15 years later that a friend brought up wrestling and we got to reminiscing. I mentioned Edge and Christian and said something about them being brothers. And the friend laughed at me then explained it was just kayfabe. Just a wrestling storyline involving good friends. Not real.  

It’s funny when it’s something as harmless as falling for a wrestling storyline. But less funny when it becomes full-on conspiracy theories that have real world impact. Like Pizzagate or Flat Earth. Or when people make character-damaging accusations like what happened with the Duke lacrosse team in 2006. Every outlet imaginable broke stories that three Duke lacrosse players had assaulted a girl they had hired to dance at a party. It was in the early days of internet media and it’s become one of the best examples of media serving as judge, jury, and executioner before all the facts were known, much less understood. People believed the victim and got on soapboxes about the “guilty” lacrosse players. Only for the case to eventually crumble. 

From Salon: Throughout the media frenzy that followed the announcement that Nifong would pursue the case, Magnum’s version of events changed continually and considerably. She was at first unable to select the attackers from a collection of photos of lacrosse team members, then later claimed to be nearly certain about photos she’d bypassed before, photos of men who differed significantly from her initial descriptions of the perpetrators. The other dancer, upon first learning of the r*** accusation, described it as “a crock,” and said that she’d been with Magnum for all of five minutes of their time in the house. She later recanted this statement; the players’ attorneys pointed out that this was after the D.A.’s office let her off from a parole violation with a slap on the wrist. 

It gets worse. DNA tests conducted on clothing and swabs obtained “only hours after” the alleged incident revealed zero DNA from any of the lacrosse players. Not the accused or other teammates. The district attorney, Michael Nifong, omitted this from his report. Which was just one of many crazy things the D.A. did to bring this case forward. It was so bad that North Carolina revoked his license to practice law. 

Some might say that Strange Darling’s use of the false accusation narrative is anti-victim. Especially with the film’s emphasis on gender. Gender is a pretty big part of everything, from Lady’s speech about the dangers of a woman trying to have a one-night stand to the whole dynamic between Gale and Pete. So I completely understand feeling that the film portrays only one side of the equation and how—as if it’s specifically calling out false victimhood, which could impact real victims—and why that might not sit well with some viewers. I think the counter to that would be that the film’s simply using this story as an example of the larger points we’ve already discussed—that we’re often quick to jump to conclusions. That applies as much to someone who believes an accuser without question as it does to someone who defends the accused. Bill Cosby has had over 60 women come forward with charges of sexual assault. He’s admitted to it. But there are people who preach his innocence to this day, especially once his conviction was thrown out over a legal technicality rather than the merit of his innocence. 

I’m giving Strange Darling the benefit of the doubt and will argue it’s using this story to illustrate how we all can fall prey to biases. And how we need to be, just generally in life, aware of that. Remember, RC is an assault victim. Lady isn’t just a false accuser but also an abuser. And while Strange Darling does lean into male-female dynamics, the movie ultimately comes down to two women. The driver who helps Lady is kind but not stupid. Other characters tried to help Lady, male and female, but had their guards completely down. The nurse in the motel tried to avoid the situation but had the option taken away by the gung-ho desk clerk. Pete wanted to take precautions but Gale talked him out of it. The driver is the only one who manages to be kind while also protecting herself. 

It’s probably a bit reductive to attempt to reduce Strange Darling to identity aspects. You get the most out of the movie when viewing it broadly, with the specific situation serving as one example of many potential examples that could each be its own movie. Believe what you think is true, but at least be aware of what you don’t know, just in case your assumptions end up being wrong. 

What was the deal with the devil visions?

This seems, partially, like a plot mechanic to me, more than something deeply literary. The movie relies on Lady acting seemingly normal for a long stretch of her interaction with RC. You don’t need the devil vision for that. It’s believable that a serial killer would act normal to lure a victim in. But it’s a bit more stylized, mysterious, and cool to have a “trigger”. It’s even a bit more tragic. As you can imagine a world where Lady was normal. Maybe she and RC really would have hit it off. But once she sees the devil, her compulsion kicks in and it’s like she becomes an entirely different person. Almost to the point of not being able to help what she does. In some ways, she’s a victim, too, of her own mental health issues. So there’s an argument that the true purpose of the vision is to make Lady less of a genuine villain and more of a tragic figure. 

Near the end, Lady looks in the side mirror of a truck and gazes at her own reflection. The devil flash happens while looking at herself. Her reaction is complex. She kind of smiles. But tears fall from her eyes. We’ve heard her say, several times, that she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Like when Pete asked if she was going to kill him. She seemed tired and honest when she answered she would rather not. Only for the devil to flash. It’s the same thing here. She could just get away. But once she sees the flash, she has to act…but doesn’t want to act because she’s injured, exhausted, and maybe is a bit tired of hurting people. 

You could argue she pulled the gun, not to fire on the driver, but to fire on herself. Nothing in her body language really supports that, as she has the muzzle aimed at the driver. But the way Lady cries makes it seem like she’s at least aware that her time is up, whether it’s self-inflicted or simply by continuously tightening the metaphorical noose around her neck.

That last scene actually makes me think of the fable about the frog and the scorpion. The scorpion asks the frog for a ride across a pond. The frog says “No, you’ll sting me.” And the scorpion says, “Why would I do that? If I sting you, I’d drown.” The frog realizes the flawlessness of that logic so lets the scorpion hop on. Midway across the pond, the scorpion strikes. “Why?” the frog asks, as the poison begins to paralyze it and they start to sink. The scorpion has time to sadly admit, “It’s just my nature.” 

So the devil flash gives the movie a way to signify to viewers the moments Lady’s “nature” kicks in. 

Is Strange Darling based on a true story?

No. But the opening scroll making it seem that way is a fun thing. We’ve discussed in detail how the movie is about perception. And you’ll have people who won’t even question that scroll and probably believe this is a stylized depiction of something that actually happened. So it’s very appropriate to present a fake story as a true story in a movie about how people believe fake stories. 

Why is the movie called Strange Darling?

Strange Darling is a pretty interesting title because there’s something soft about it. Like if the movie was called Scary B***, that conveys a much more aggressive energy. “Darling” is intimate, usually only used in relation to someone you love. So it establishes a romanticism, which Chapter 1 and 2 reinforce..  

“Strange” modifies this romanticism. The “darling” is someone you love, but there is something about them that’s difficult to understand. “Strange” is pretty euphemistic and not without its own sense of romance. Like when Lady Gaga wore an outfit made of raw meat, a fan might call it eccentric and creative, strange in the best of ways. While a critic would call it freakish and deviant. 

So why Strange Darling? I think it captures everything we said about perception. Who is Lady, really? A decent person with a mental illness? Or a monster who pretends to be normal when it suits her? Some will find her more sympathetic and tragic, others will view her as evil. This complicated perception is what makes her a curious figure, a strange darling. Think about the song at the end, about the “Devil you know.” It has a fairy tale quality. It’s pretty and haunting. Sad but alluring. That’s the whole movie. It’s a “strange darling”, a hodgepodge of different genres, that swings from endearing and electric to cruel and crude. And, like a fairy tale, it includes a lesson about life.