Right at the end of summer, at the tail end of a movie season stuffed with whirling tornadoes, raging apes and a mouldy Michael Keaton, comes another welcome throwback: a low-budget thriller that emerges out of nowhere to bowl you over. With its enigmatic title and cast of relative unknowns, it was on few radars until recently. But it should be on your radar now — and not just because Stephen King himself has hailed it as “a clever masterpiece”. Strange Darling is a smart, slippery creation, one which largely lands its blows with a wallop, and which proves a major calling card for both its director and its female star.

“I’m going to have to ask you a question,” goes an early line of dialogue. “Are you a serial killer?” That question hangs over the whole bloody affair. We’re in a place called Hood River County, Oregon, an...