JT Mollner has horror in his blood. The Las Vegas native is the son of Duke Mollner, founder of the Freakling Brothers haunted house attraction, which has become a Vegas Halloween institution. Mollner has been instrumental in the operation and expansion of Freakling Brothers, and he’s also carved out an impressive filmmaking career for himself.
He released his debut feature, Outlaws and Angels, in 2016, and his new film, Strange Darling, premiered to critical and audience acclaim at Fantastic Fest in 2023. It’s a twisty horror-tinged thriller starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Begley Jr. Mollner also recently completed a screenplay for the forthcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Long Walk, to be directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games). With Strange Darling set for wide release in theaters on August 23, Mollner spoke to Desert Companion about his creative process and his Las Vegas ties. An edited excerpt follows.
How did the idea for Strange Darling come about?
I started envisioning this image of this woman running through the woods in distress. I couldn’t get it out of my head. As I was going about my day and doing things over the course of a few weeks, I started seeing more detail in this image. I was like, I’ve got to write something about this final girl. It was a really interesting thing, because I imagined the story out of sequence. This movie kind of starts where most horror films and stories of these final girls end. So, I was like, what more is there to her? And what can we show that we haven’t seen in these other films? Once the full picture was realized, it was one of those crazy and really satisfying experiences where I knew exactly how it was going to end. I knew exactly how each scene was going to go. All I had to do was sit down and type it.
What was it like for you experiencing the movie with an audience in person?
There’s really been nothing like it for me. It’s been so rewarding. It just feels like it’s the perfect film to play in front of an audience in a theater. People react audibly together when certain things happen in the movie. It’s been really exciting to hear people go along for the ride. They’re laughing, and they’re gasping, and they’re upset, and then they’re excited. It’s been unparalleled, the experience of being able to watch it with audiences. I can’t wait to do it some more.
Are you still hoping to make a feature film in Vegas?
I do have something that I’d love to shoot in Vegas. I have something that I’ve written for Vegas. A lot of it actually takes place out on Lake Mead. But it all depends. You sort of choose five or six things hopefully that you would enjoy making, and then whichever one you’re lucky enough to get made gets made. I’d love to be back in Vegas doing something at some point, because I know the town so well, and I grew up there.
Are you coming to Vegas for Freakling Brothers this year?
Absolutely. We had a very successful couple of years after COVID. We had our best seasons ever, actually, from a commercial standpoint. People were coming from all over the world. Then last year, because of some development on the property, we lost our location. We scrambled, and we finally found a new location, but we didn’t have time to get the proper permits. So, we had to close up shop. It was very financially damaging for the company. It threw us into debt. It’s put us in a precarious place, but I’m determined to get us back open again this year.