Netflix Gets Serial Killer Thriller Based On The Wildest True Story Ever
Netflix plans to release Woman of the Hour, a gripping serial killer thriller on September 8th, and the real-life story behind it is stranger than fiction. Woman of the Hour follows Cheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick) as she appears on the 70s game show, The Dating Game, and Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovato) wins a date with her. The film puts its own twist on the story, but the creepy inspiration is a real-life thriller of its own.
…in 1979, Cheryl Bradshaw decided not to go on a date with him because she found him creepy, but in the fictionalized version of events in Woman of the Hour, Bradshaw decides to go on the date.
In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared as bachelor number 3 on The Dating Game and won a date with Cheryl Bradshaw. What no one knew at the time was that Rodney Alcala was a serial killer who was active at the time the show aired and enjoyed photographing his victims, relying on a camera to get women to let their guards down.
In the true story of Alcala, who became known as The Dating Game Killer after his capture in 1979, Cheryl Bradshaw decided not to go on a date with him because she found him creepy, but in the fictionalized version of events in Woman of the Hour, Bradshaw decides to go on the date.
The new film, directed by Anna Kendrick and written by Ian MacAllister McDonald, is already a smashing success with a 90 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The trailer for Woman of the Hour recreates the set for the Dating Game in meticulous detail and leads the audience on a tour through a few of the film’s most chilling moments. It shows a 70s-era world in which Alcala photographs women on the beach, washes blood off his hands, and generally acts like a creep. Sheryl Bradshaw is told by a producer on the set of the Dating Game to laugh and smile a lot and is encouraged to go on the show by her agent even though she doesn’t want to because it will get her exposure, depicting what women were up against in the entertainment industry of the 70s.
The new film, directed by Anna Kendrick and written by Ian MacAllister McDonald, is already a smashing success with a 90 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. A limited circle of 49 critics has seen the film, so there’s no audience score yet for Woman of the Hour. It has a 7.8 out of 10 average score, giving it a very positive score so far.
Woman of the Hour is Anna Kendrick’s debut film as a director…
Woman of the Hour premiered on September 8, 2023, at the Toronto International Film Festival, which coincided with the SAG-Aftra strike, so none of the cast members were able to appear for the premiere. With the rights being sold and resold around the time of the premiere, it wasn’t clear for a while when it would be released to a wider audience. In spite of a few bumps along the road, the film went on to be shown at several festivals and won the Directors to Watch award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Woman of the Hour is Anna Kendrick’s debut film as a director, so the critical reception is a boost for Kendrick in a new role. Anna Kendrick is best known for the Pitch Perfect trilogy and is also a classically trained stage actress. The film’s writer, Ian MacAllister McDonald, best known for his writing and directing on Some Freaks, is also a producer on the film.
