This review originally ran in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.
To say that “Don’t Worry Darling” is a mixture of “The Stepford Wives” and “Get Out” is both accurate and deeply misleading. It’s accurate because Olivia Wilde’s satiric and somewhat frantic psychological thriller does borrow from films like “Stepford,” where an idealized community is one in which the women are dolls designed for male satisfaction, and “Get Out,” which uses horror trappings to grapple with timely issues of power and privilege.
But it’s misleading because there’s another film to which “Don’t Worry Darling” owes even more than it does to those two – but to even mention the other film’s name would be to give away a crucial plot twist that happens late in the film and changes everything.