True crime thrillers are all the rage these days and movies releasing on Netflix these days have boosted their popularity through the roof. One of these thrillers is Anna Kendrick’s directorial-debut Woman Of The Hour that has brought to light the gruesomeness of one of the most notorious serial killers in America.
The film, which also stars Kendrick is based on a horrifying true story about the serial rapist and killer Rodney Alcala, who almost had his next target after meeting her on a popular dating show in the 1970s.
Kendrick portrays Sheryl Bradshaw, the woman whose instincts saved her from being one of Alcala’s many victims.
The film is set in 1970s Los Angeles, California where Sheryl is a struggling actress trying to land her first big break. One things leads to the next and she was signed up for appearing on The Dating Game by her agent, who believed it would give her a much-needed exposure for the show business.
Even the movie trailer shows, Sheryl eventually agrees, setting the stage for her encounter with Alcala, who was one of the three bachelors on the 1978 show and later went on to get convicted for seven murders.
While it is based on a true story, the film has some elements that aren’t entirely accurate. Plus there are some big additions to the film. Notably, the movie is an imagination of what could have happened if Sheryl’s instinct hadn’t kicked in and she hadn’t refused to go on a date with Alcala.
Yes, she backed away from going on a date with the killer after choosing him from a batch of three bachelors and that was it. They never met again.
So we’re going to take a look at what the film got right and the things that were changed or added for the sake of the story.
Facts vs fiction in Woman Of The Hour
First off the name. The movie names the Woman of the hour as Sheryl with an ‘S’ whereas in reality, she reportedly spelt her name with a C.
Kendrick also decided to change the sequence of the bachelors in which they appeared on the show. Alacala, who was Bachelor 3 in the film, was actually Bachelor number 1. The director also decided to take liberty of tweaking Sheryl’s mannerisms on The Dating Game set, who was shown as a rebellious woman asking questions not as playful as the real one.
She also seemed to be at odds with the show’s host Jim Lange, who hosted the show since 1965 and was anything but condescending to women. In fact, Lange once rejected an offer to cover sports as the management wanted women to cover dancing, AP reports. He said it was a “very sexist” idea.
In the movie, Kendrick introduced a fictional character named Ed Burke as the host, who was mean spirited and insisted Sheryl to dumb down for the bachelors.
Another major introduction was a character named Laura, played by Nicolette Robinson, who was the friend of Alcala’s victim. The film shows her trying to approach the show’s producers to warn them about a serial killer in the limelight, but she wasn’t able to do so.
What the movie did get right is how unaware the show’s participants, the producers and viewers were about Alcala. Reports say he had already been incarcerated once and was on the FBI’s 10 ‘most wanted’ list before appearing on the show. He was sentenced to death for five murders in California between 1977 and 1979, meaning he had already killed before meeting Sheryl.
While there was no Laura to warn the show makers, reports say one Bachelor actually warned Cheryl about Alcala after sensing something off-putting. This is also included in the film.
Kendrick was also right in showing Alcala as a photographer who used to photograph his victims before killing them. According to Murphy, authorities estimated that he may have killed up to 130 people across the country as they recovered hundreds of pictures mostly of women after Alcala’s arrest.
Another fictional aspect was the gift that Sheryl received after choosing Alcala as her potential paramour. According to the movie, they won a trip to Carmel when in reality the couple was awarded tennis lessons and a trip to the Magic Mountain theme park. The film also shows Sheryl going for drinks with Alcala in a bar after filming the dating episode. This also didn’t actually happen.
But it was crucial to make Sheryl realise Alcala is not who she thought. The film shows her realising the “weird vibes” that the man gave off, something which the real Cheryl talked about.
In reality, Cheryl told the contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger that she wants to cancel her date. The movie also correctly portrayed that Sheryl fancied Alcala initially owing to his answers which, many would agree were flirtatious and full of innuendos.
Daniel Zovatto, who plays Alcala in the movie, was also on the mark in adopting the character, which according to him was ‘interesting.’ Zovatto was also amazed at how twisted Alcala went on to become as a man despite having a perfectly normal childhood without any abuses.
“With Rodney, he committed crimes for many, many years before getting caught, but the research showed that he had a normal childhood. Nobody thought that he was going to go down this path. It was a shock to everyone,” Zovatto said.
Notably, Alcala died of natural causes in prison in 2021 at the age of 77. According to Murphy, he was diagnosed of Alzheimer’s.
The movie has received acclaimed internationally thanks to Kendrick successfully projecting everything it was supposed to. She revealed that Woman of the Hour was shot over 24 days in Vancouver in Canada and the stakes were high for the dating show scenes.
“Logistically the movie was incredibly challenging. We were trying to create 1970s Los Angeles in the present-day Canadian winter, and we had 24 days to do it. For the Dating Game sequences, we had to shoot a 25-page play for every single set up and, on our schedule, that usually meant that we got one take for each setup,” she said. Kendrick also revealed that the eerie vocals in the film were all provided by the actresses in the film. “The idea is that there are all of these women who’ve been harmed by this man, and it’s like they’re trying to call out through the screen,” she said.
The movie first released on Netflix and will soon stream on Lionsgate Play on November 29.
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