A Chilling Antidote to Serial Killer Worship

When you watch a murder scene set during the day, it’s hard not to feel unsettled—the juxtaposition between the dark acts being performed and the sunny backdrop triggers our natural fight or flight response. When those scenes are based on true events, however, they can really stay with you, reminding you of how fleeting and unfair real life can really be.

Anna Kendrick (yes, that one) clearly knows this, as she makes excellent use of the horror trope in her directorial debut Woman of the Hour, which had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival this week. Through this dramatic retelling of serial killer and sex offender Rodney Alcala’s appearance on The Dating Game, Kendrick asks us to confront an unfortunately eternal truth: nice guys might finish first, but they are not always to be trusted.

Similar films directed by men (think David Fincher’s Zodiac, or the more recent Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) focus on the grisly crimes committed and the folks (again, men) who want to figure out who did them before it’s too late. Woman of the Hour, like Jane Campion’s In the Cut before it, turns the camera towards the victims instead.

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From the ones who didn’t get away to the survivor who beat the bastard at his own twisted games, Kendrick makes a point to give the women affected by Alcala (portrayed here by Daniel Zovatto of It Follows and Don’t Breathe) more screen time than the monster said to have murdered up to 130 people. Between the visceral reenactments of Alcala’s heinous crimes, Kendrick introduces us to Cheryl Bradshaw, the unsuspecting actress-turned-contestant who was charmed by Alcala’s wickedly winsome answers to stock questions.

While we don’t get into Alcala’s backstory over the course of Woman of the Hour‘s short, but tense runtime, the movie paints a vivid picture of how he wooed his victims. Clearly hip to the pillars of second-wave feminism, the long-haired shutterbug used “not like the other guys” lines to lure them into trusting him before going for the kill.

At one point in the film, we watch Alcala tell a young flight attendant (Kathryn Gallagher, You) about taking a class taught by convicted rapists and Rosemary’s Baby director Roman Polanski before bashing her brains in. Suffice it to say, I left the theatre fielding flashbacks to dates with Letterboxd bros that ended in a speed walk back to my car.

As evidenced by the Polanski reference, Ian MacAllister McDonald’s screenplay can be a bit on the nose at times. But on the whole, Woman of the Hour offers an uncomfortably accurate representation of the hypervigilance required to survive encounters with suspiciously friendly men. Kendrick’s passion for this topic is obvious, with the scenes spent with Alcala’s targets coming off particularly strong. If only she had stayed behind the camera and let another actress (say, Gallagher or the film’s other standout Autumn Best) play Cheryl.

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It’s not to say that Kendrick is bad in the film. She just feels like a carbon copy of many of her other characters, which is rather tragic considering she’s playing a real person. Zovatto, meanwhile, is deliciously sinister as Alcala. And look out for Nicolette Robinson (One Night in Miami…) as Laura, a Dating Game audience member who has some sneaking suspicions about Bachelor No. 3.

There’s another version of Woman of the Hour that just focuses on producing that now infamous episode (you know, a Network for the My Favorite Murder set). I think Kendrick was wise to make that part of the story the hook as opposed to the entire piece. In a time when people are literally fangirling over Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, we need more movies like Woman of the Hour. Movies that aren’t afraid to confront the terrifying truth while also respecting the people who actually lived it.

Categorized: Movie Reviews