One Of 2024's Best Horror Performances Almost Didn't Happen

Spoilers for "Strange Darling" follow.

JT Mollner's "Strange Darling" lives up to its title as dolled-up sleaze (the make-up being 35mm film). Half-erotic thriller and half slasher, it's a 21st century "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" structured like "Pulp Fiction." The film plays with you by taking a cut-and-dry premise and experimenting with how far it can twist. The result, which never breaks, is one of 2024's best horror films. (Read /Film's "Strange Darling" review here.)

What will keep you especially glued to the screen is Willa Fitzgerald's performance as "The Lady," a bleeding and terrified woman seemingly in need of help. Fitzgerald (who has been acting since 2008) has earned fans for her parts in the MTV "Scream" series and "Reacher" season 1 as Roscoe Conklin. She was also in Mike Flanagan's "The Fall of the House of the Usher," where she played the young Madeline Usher. Even in that series' huge ensemble, Fitzgerald's performance marked her as an actor to keep an eye on. The courage of taking the part when she would inevitably be compared to Mary McDonnell (who played the older Madeline) can't be overstated.

"Strange Darling" was a film I counted down the release of because I wanted to see more of what Fitzgerald could do. Imagine my shock to learn she was almost forced out of the project. Mollner revealed this during an appearance on podcast "The Business with Kim Masters" (details were reported second-hand soon after by Bloody Disgusting).

On "The Business," Mollner — appearing with his producer Roy Lee of Spooky Pictures — discussed how "Strange Darling" came to be. Some context: Mollner had only made one feature film before, the low budget 2016 Western "Outlaws and Angels." After that, "Strange Darling" took six years to get off the ground. Mollner had help from Lee and fellow producer Steven Schneider, who found it a home at Miramax.

Then Mollner and his crew started shooting "Strange Darling," and Miramax hated the dailies, so much so they stopped the production after only two days. "We hate everything you're sending us, we're not enjoying this at all, and we're not sure if this is going to work," the financiers said, according to Mollner, who says it came down to "different taste." The director never lost confidence that the movie would be "special," but he knew this was bad news and possibly game over. "If we get shut down now, I doubt anybody will ever give me another opportunity to make a movie."

Production remained paused for a week, during which Lee and Schneider stepped into Mollner's (and Fitzgerald's) court. Lee is the one who revealed on The Business that Miramax wanted Fitzgerald out, and how he had to fight for her. "They wanted to recast, and I was like, 'We can not recast this movie.' Plus, I also knew if we were going to recast, and shut down for that, it would take weeks and there was a good chance we would have never gotten back up and running again." Lee ultimately had to lean on then Miramax CEO Bill Block, who came down on his side and gave "Strange Darling" its greenlight back. 

"I felt like I was directing for my life," Mollner said of the resumed shoot. Once the production wrapped, the naysayers at Miramax were still unconvinced by the footage. So, Mollner again went to Block and requested a test screening. Once the film "brought the house down" to an audience of 350, Block went a step further in his support and gave Mollner the final cut. "The movie you're seeing in theaters all over the country is the movie I wanted it to be."

That anyone could want Willa Fitzgerald recast after seeing "Strange Darling" clips makes my jaw drop almost as much as, well, when I first watched "Strange Darling."

In the movie, she plays "The Lady," a woman pursued by "The Demon" (Kyle Gallner), first in a car and then on foot as he carries a shotgun. The non-chronological structure reveals they had been having a kinky one-night stand with some violent roleplay; we keep expecting the Demon to turn fantasy into reality. Only, twist, it's her who's the real psycho. Fitzgerald's character is a serial killer, The Electric Lady, and the Demon is chasing her not as a prize, but as revenge for her torturing him. (I'll admit that if I ever meet a serial killer who looks like Fitzgerald as the Electric Lady, I'm definitely getting honey-trapped.)

This character is how "Strange Darling" twists horror movies' final girl archetype; we think we've seen this kind of chase before (in "Halloween," "Scream," etc.) and the Electric Lady banks on people instantly tagging her as a victim. What's most impressive about Fitzgerald's performance is how she has to constantly flip her mood; from sobbing victim to blunt and sexually liberated, from wounded dove to ice cold killer. Speaking to Deadline, Fitzgerald said the range of the character is what intrigued her:

"I had never read anything that allowed me the possibility to explore that much range, and to have that much space to just fly free. [...] I was like, whoa, this is a puzzle that I'm going to have to put together in order to make this person."

The actress also maintains that everything the Lady confesses to the Demon (real name R.C.) is sincere. In the movie's most haunting moment, the Lady admits to R.C. that she felt love when he was choking her in their motel room and that "Love Hurts" is their song. She starts singing the song's chorus, with tears and a trembling voice, but an unbroken gaze. The contradictions of a love confession and threat wrapped together represent what makes Fitzgerald's performance, and "Strange Darling," unforgettable.

"Strange Darling" will be available to buy or rent on streaming and VOD platforms on October 1, 2024.