‘Too clever to spoil’: Vegas native’s horror film earns rave reviews from Stephen King

Getting the word out about JT Mollner’s “Strange Darling” hasn’t been easy.

The horror site Fangoria posted the movie’s trailer, then begged readers not to watch it.

A writer for the film site Cinapse led his review by asking visitors not to read it.

Stephen King gave the movie his seal of approval by not talking about it. As he posted on social media, “it’s one of those films that’s too clever to spoil.”

Writer-director Mollner — of the Freakling Bros. haunted house Mollners — has crafted something so against type, so not what audiences have come to expect, that “Strange Darling’s” fans want to protect its secrets as much as possible before it hits theaters nationwide on Friday.

This moment has been a long time coming for the Las Vegas native whose only other feature, the Western “Outlaws and Angels,” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016.

Film’s few details

“At its core, it’s just this very extreme, crazy, violent love story,” Mollner says.

To be more specific — and without giving anything away because this is revealed in the text that opens the film — the movie follows “the most prolific and unique serial killer of the 21st century” who left a trail of bodies from Denver to Hood River County, Oregon, between 2018 and 2020.

As the opening credits roll, a bloodied blonde in red hospital scrubs runs for her life. She’s introduced as “The Lady,” portrayed by Willa Fitzgerald (“Reacher”). Kyle Gallner (“Smile”) is credited as “The Demon.” Singer-songwriter Z Berg, who wrote and performed the soundtrack, sings “Love Hurts” with her godfather, Keith Carradine.

Later in the movie but earlier in the story — “Strange Darling” is broken into six chapters, told nonsequentially, beginning with Chapter 3 — the two characters are shown in better times as they flirt, bathed in the blue neon of the sign for the last motel for 72 miles.

“Do you have any idea,” she asks, “the kind of risks a woman like me takes every time she agrees to have a little bit of fun?”

The exchange is building toward a one-night stand, which she says she usually doesn’t do. Yet she’s acutely aware of the fact that, once they enter that motel room, he could very easily murder her.

The Lady asks, point blank, if he’s a serial killer.

No, The Demon replies, choking back a smile, he is not.

‘Such a magical experience’

“Strange Darling” had its coming-out party last September at Fantastic Fest. The gathering in Austin, Texas, bills itself as “the largest genre film festival in the U.S.” and has hosted the world premiere of movies ranging from “John Wick” to “There Will Be Blood.”

Tim League, who founded both Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse, saw an early cut of “Strange Darling” and made it the first movie in years that he’d personally programmed for the festival.

“It was such a magical experience at Fantastic Fest with that audience,” Mollner says. “We had multiple screenings, and I just kept running into people who said they loved the movie. It humbled me to such an extent.”

Since then, “Strange Darling” has been earning rave reviews. IndieWire just declared it was “not only the best American film so far this year, it’s one of the best horror movies of all time.”

Keeping things in the family

With very few exceptions, “Strange Darling” could have been set — or even filmed — in the 1970s.

The movie has a grindhouse aesthetic that Mollner developed with actor-turned-cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi during years of late-night text messages about the genre movies and obscure films they loved.

What Mollner calls the “candy-coated” look of “Strange Darling” was inspired by the likes of David Cronenberg’s “Dead Ringers,” David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” Ken Russell’s “The Devils” and Ingmar Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers.”

He and Ribisi spent months testing lenses and film stock before settling on the right combination. The process was an extension of the DIY film school Mollner began at a young age.

By the time he reached middle school, his aunt, Dede Mollner, had introduced him to the films of Bergman, Roman Polanski and Federico Fellini while his older brother, Daniel, made sure he watched “Goodfellas.”

Mollner treasured the weekend trips to the video store while his dad, Duke Mollner, worked. On many of those nights, his mother, Ginnie Pallone Mollner, exposed him to grown-up films such as “The Other Side of Midnight,” based on the Sidney Sheldon bestseller, and her favorite, the World War II romance “Hanover Street,” starring Harrison Ford. Those movies gave him “a deep sense of romance and emotion and human connection,” Mollner says.

“But I also love the hard-core horror that my dad and my brother turned me on to. I feel like there’s a mix of a lot of that in my influence, and I hope that when you watch a movie like ‘Strange Darling,’ you can see those different elements kind of wrapped up into their own cocktail.”

“Strange Darling” is dedicated to Dede, who died in 2021, and it includes contributions from his parents.

Ginnie, a singer who performed around Las Vegas for decades and met Duke, a former dancer, when they were castmates in “Lido de Paris” at the Dunes, is featured on the soundtrack. Her version of Berg’s “To Forget You” can be heard on the radio during a montage. Duke, meanwhile, pops up at the motel.

“It feels great to be able to help your own parents, who have always supported you, realize their own dreams,” Mollner says. “But it also benefits me because they’re so good. My mom, wait till you hear this song! She has the voice of an angel. She’s been my favorite singer my entire life. And my dad’s crazy, absurdist, outlandish performance makes the movie better.”

More horror awaits

Mollner will be working with his family again this fall when their Freakling Bros. haunted houses return after a one-year absence. The Halloween staple, which expanded from a neighborhood favorite at their home to a commercial enterprise in 1992, took last year off when its location fell through.

He’s as involved in the attractions — “Castle Vampyre,” “Gates of Hell” and “The Coven of 13” — as he would be on a movie set, if not more so. Mollner typically has a hand in casting and training the actors and serves as a de facto director each year.

“It’s very important to me that Freakling Bros. continues,” he says. “It’s my dad’s life’s work. It’s our family legacy.”

Mollner’s influences will next be seen in “The Long Walk,” the much-anticipated movie he scripted that’s based on the first novel Stephen King ever wrote. The story follows an annual contest in which a hundred teenage boys walk along U.S. Highway 1, maintaining a speed of at least 4 miles an hour, until all but one drop dead from illness or exhaustion or from being shot for being too slow.

It’s a big deal considering “Carrie” was the first novel Mollner read. He was in the second grade at the time.

“I read that novel before I read anything by Judy Blume or any of the young adult stuff,” he recalls. “I inched my way through it. I think it took me six months or something. I understood very little of it.”

Mollner loved it anyway, and he remembers being sent to the principal’s office for having it with him at William E. Ferron Elementary School. Mollner wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated horror movies until he was in his teens. Any books, though, were fair game, which led to him devouring King’s works.

“At some point, I was pinching myself,” Mollner says. “I’m adapting this novel that I’ve always loved for my favorite modern popular novelist. And I’m adapting it for one of the best working directors who I admire equally.”

That would be Francis Lawrence, who knows a little something about deadly dystopian spectator sports, having directed the “Hunger Games” sequels and last year’s prequel. “The Long Walk” is currently in production.

“It’s an amazing situation,” Mollner says. “I’m really happy with how it’s turning out.”

The horror master’s endorsement of “Strange Darling” was unsolicited and a thrill for the filmmaker who practically grew up in haunted houses.

“I’ve joked to my family and friends, ‘Stephen King said he loved my movie. I don’t have to make any more movies,’ ” Mollner says.

“I don’t know how the world’s going to feel about (“Strange Darling”), but Stephen King likes it.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on X.