*Spoiler Alert*
True crime has steadily embedded itself into the collective consciousness of the American public for the better part of the past decade. Podcasts explore cold cases, trying to search for decades-old trails. Several movies and television shows about real life serial killers have exploded in popularity as well. Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut in “Woman of the Hour” fits in this category, at least on the surface. Released on Netflix on October 18th, it chronicles the real life story of serial killer Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) when he appeared as a contestant on a dating game show in 1978 called “Dating Game.”
“A lot of questions have been asked on this dating show. But it all comes down to one thing: Are you going to hurt me?” a makeup artist asks Cheryl (Kendrick) as she struggles to make her choice amongst the three contestants. It’s a question the audience keeps in mind throughout the movie. Interspersed between the taping of the game show are Rodney with his other victims as he takes them out into the desert. Posing as a photographer looking for a model, he takes their photos before strangling and murdering them. The women are all different, but they all have one thing in common: they have no way of knowing Rodney would hurt them.
It’s a fear “Woman of the Hour” captures well. When Cheryl goes on a date with Rodney following the end of the show, the creeping horror she experiences as she realizes Rodney is a threat is engrossing to watch. It portrays the trapped, panicking vulnerability that almost every woman has experienced in her life late at night. Cheryl gets away, but several other women don’t. Kendrick forces the audience to confront this in the opening scene itself, when a woman is strangled, then resuscitated just to be tortured again. The one who does get away merely does so by chance.
Many films about serial killers are told from the perspective of the killer or the people hunting them down. When they recreate scenes of the victim being murdered, they can feel strangely fated. They were murdered, and there’s nothing anybody could have done to prevent it. But the one woman who recognizes Rodney as a predator is ignored by everyone else. The police laugh at his jokes and pat him on the back, oblivious to his murderous intent. Ultimately, men like Rodney thrive because nobody takes women’s instincts seriously. “Woman of the Hour” is too brief to fully delve into the themes on violence and misogyny, meaning it never quite rises above standard thriller material. Admittedly these stories are delivered in a rather blunt manner, but some stories need to be told bluntly.
Verdict: A promising first offering from director Anna Kendrick that captures what it feels like to be preyed upon as a woman.
