Certificate: 15

Running Time: 95 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 18 October 2024

WHO’S IN WOMAN OF THE HOUR?

Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Tony Hale, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakle, Autumn Best, Jessie Fraser, Taylor Hastings, Jedidiah Goodacre, Darcy Laurie

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Anna Kendrick (director), Ian McDonald (writer), Roy Lee, J.D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules, Russ Posternak, Vindhya Sagar and Miri Yoon (producers), Dan Romer and Mike Tuccillo (composers), Zach Kuperstein (cinematographer), Andrew Canny (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A woman on a 70s dating show (Kendrick) is paired with a serial killer (Zovatto)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON WOMAN OF THE HOUR?

Long before the likes of The Bachelor, Love Island, Too Hot to Handle and – *shudder* – MILF Manor turned prospective love into reality TV chaos, dating shows were much more straightforward. Often on shows like the Cilla Black-fronted Blind Date, you’d just have a man or woman ask three unseen contestants all sorts of questions until they made their calculated choice, with any and all drama kept firmly off the camera – that is, unless the contestants themselves happened to be far less romantic than they may have initially claimed to be.

Believe it or not, that was exactly what happened during one taping of the popular 70s programme The Dating Game (think a slightly scuzzier US version of Blind Date), when one contestant – a man by the name of Rodney Alcala – turned out to be a prolific serial killer who was already deep into his murderous spree by the time he popped up on syndicated television. Yes, this was something that actually happened, and in Woman of the Hour this bizarre case, as well as the sinister path this man strolled down leading up to and beyond it, is dramatized in understated yet unsettling style.

Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut on the film (from a script by Ian McDonald), and she also stars as Sheryl, a struggling actor in late 70s Hollywood who lands a gig as the week’s hopeful romantic on The Dating Game, as a means to get noticed for future roles. Of course, this is the episode on which Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) is one of three guys hoping to win her favour, and as the show goes on – with Alcala easily outmanoeuvring his less suitable rivals – flashes to the past and future reveal the full extent of his crimes, luring unsuspecting young women to their deaths (often in the middle of the desert) under the pretence of being a photographer.

While the absurdity of having a serial killer be a contestant on a dating show suggests plenty of wild scenarios, Woman of the Hour is a much more muted film than the stranger-than-fiction premise might have you believe. However, it brings out a core strength in Kendrick’s direction, which is in how she investigates Alcala and his terrifying methods without feeling the need to heighten events for dramatic licence. Kendrick and McDonald preserve the central Dating Game recording as a framing device, keeping that section largely drama-free while adopting a matter-of-fact attitude toward depicting the disturbing ways in which the killer was able to take advantage of his numerous victims and their helplessness.

In many ways, seeing these events simply just happen in such an unnervingly realistic fashion makes it far more terrifying to watch unfold, because the director and writer bring such plausibility to scenes where Zovatto’s Alcala is calmly staring daggers at his next victim that it feels like something that could genuinely happen in the real world (partially because, well, it did).

The filmmakers also call to attention the societal circumstances of the era that allowed someone like Alcala to easily blend into, to where he could appear on a dating show and somehow not be the creepiest guy in the room. Kendrick and McDonald amplify some of the overwhelmingly misogynist attitudes of the era, with everyone from casting agents to even Tony Hale as the show’s host displaying slimy and generally unpleasant views on how women should appear, act etc when in the company of men, and it’s all coated in indubitable amounts of sleaze that you half-expect most of these guys to leap into a violent frenzy at several points – not least of all the actual killer in the room.

The calling-out of such chauvinistic philosophies is nowhere near as overdone as many other similar thrillers that are far less subtle – the 2019 Black Christmas movie could learn a thing or two from Woman of the Hour in how it calls out misogyny without becoming insufferable in and of itself – and the film manages to achieve its messages without becoming too consumed by the self-righteousness of it all.

What’s more, Kendrick remembers that she is making a film about a deranged and unnaturally creepy serial killer, and does not let her social commentary get in the way of her unsettling interpretation of this guy and his notorious murders. The director gets an intimidating central performance out of Daniel Zovatto, who brings calm and collected menace to a true sociopath, one who can switch from charismatic loner to dead-eyed monster in a matter of seconds. She also gives enough time and compassion to his victims, who even for the limited amount of time they are on screen are given enough humanity to make you feel incredibly bad for the fates that they’re about to meet. Certain scenes where Alcala is simply stalking women in a parking lot or watching them from afar really get underneath your skin, thanks in part to some chilling nighttime cinematography and a careful use of the film’s soundtrack, all of which Kendrick displays a remarkable hand at executing for what is her first directorial feature.

It may not excite all fans of serial killer cinema, but Woman of the Hour is chilling in how realistically it treats such an evil mind. Rodney Alcala may have been no Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees or Patrick Bateman, and Kendrick has no desire to even place him near that league of famous screen killers, but the frighteningly real ways in which he is shown to operate, within a society that might well have done the deed itself if left unchecked, does make him just as scary as those much more heightened examples.

Still, I’d take an hour and a half with this guy over any amount of time watching *shudder* MILF Manor.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Woman of the Hour takes a muted but no less disturbing approach to its real-life serial killer, as director Anna Kendrick conveys the sinister attitudes of the murderer, as well as the misogynist society in which he was allowed to thrive, through a chillingly matter-of-fact perspective that might just crawl under your skin.

Click here or check below to find where you can stream Woman of the Hour now, thanks to JustWatch!