An aspiring actress in Los Angeles. A cheesy dating show where she’s set up with a stranger. One charming and undiscovered serial killer who knows how to answer all of her questions. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a classic slasher movie, doesn’t it? Well, in her directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, actress and singer Anna Kendrick takes this storyline and asked us to view it from a new lens—one that centers the women in the story, rather than the male criminal. She succeeds in making this film one of the most haunting thrillers of the year, with barely a trace of the overshot gore that we’ve become so used to seeing in these types of stories.
The movie itself follows a few different storylines. The main one, as I mentioned, centers around Sheryl, a struggling young actress in LA searching for her big break. When her agent gets her a guest appearance role on The Dating Game, a blind dating show where the woman asks a series of questions to three mystery contestants, ultimately choosing one at the end to essentially keep spending time with. When Sheryl begrudgingly takes the job, she’s immediately appalled by the expectations set for her by the show—basically act dumb, smile, and follow the script. Sheryl decides to change up the rules, asking questions that she thinks are actually fit for choosing someone to date, with one bachelor standing up above the rest, a man named Rodney Alcala.
The film also follows various secondary storylines, including a young runaway, a flight attendant moving into her new New York City apartment, and a woman grappling with the unsolved murder of her best friend on the beach a few years prior. Although Rodney is a common thread in all of these stories, he is not the central character. Each scene humanizes each woman, painting her as the multi-faceted and unique person that she is before even introducing Rodney as a character in her life. Don’t worry, though, this thriller definitely still thrills—once he’s introduced, Rodney fits the serial killer mold to a T. However, despite the violent nature of his crimes, the true terror in this film doesn’t come from gore, blood, or even violence. It comes from that moment that so many of us know so well, the turning point in the conversation where we start to wonder, “am I as safe as I thought I was a moment ago?”
While each respective storyline has a moment like this, the most notable scene of terror in this film comes from one of Sheryl’s interactions with Rodney alone in a dark parking lot. There’s a sigh of relief when Sheryl gives Rodney a fake number. We know that she knows to protect herself, and that the contact information she gave Rodney was a dead end for him. But, our breath catches again when he asks her to recite the number back at him—and she freezes. She can’t remember the fake number she wrote down. We see the realization in his eyes, followed by the understanding and rage that is all too familiar to those who have ever turned down a dangerous person. Sheryl owns it, telling him that she doesn’t want anything to do with him, and there’s a terrifying sequence as we see her walk across the dark parking lot to her car with Rodney sticking close behind her the entire time.
Another one of the most terrifying aspects of this film is when it becomes obvious to us that there have been many attempts to catch Rodney, by the families and friends of the victims to suspicious coworkers. We see Rodney charm his way out of it again and again. He escapes every time without a single consequence, and even gets cast as a mystery bachelor on the cheesy dating show that Sheryl finds herself on in order to pay her rent. He manages to commit crimes over and over again, barely earning a slap on the wrist thanks to his charming nature and smooth talking. As we jump between storylines, this creates a suspenseful sense of dramatic irony as we see everyone around him open up and trust him, while we’re constantly aware of his grisly secrets.
The most disturbing part of the film to me, however, is the end, after the resolution to this story. Maybe this fact was known by more people, but I didn’t realize that this film was based on a true story until the very end, when the text about the real cases flashed across the screen. Rodney Alcala was a real man, a real serial killer, who was convicted of five murders, but is suspected to have committed as many as 130. And the seemingly wild storyline about him appearing on a dating show? It was 100% true. This man, during the height of his killing spree, actually appeared on the show The Dating Game in 1978 and won. Despite the multiple leads that police had pointing straight to him, Alcala was allowed to appear on public television, to “seduce” a (seemingly) helpless and naive woman, and be invited to date her and take her on a vacation after it ended. To me, this insanely ridiculous misstep from so many authorities and lack of due diligence from everyone involved was the most terrifying concept that I’ve seen this year through a fictional work—only, it was further cemented by the fact that it was all true.