Woman of the Hour

In her directorial debut, Anna Kendrick steers clear of the common pitfall of dramatising male serial killers and refuses to romanticise “The Dating Game” killer despite how easy it would’ve been to do just that. Woman of the Hour launches directly into the action, with the opening scene showing Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) convincing a vulnerable young woman named Sarah (Kelley Jakle) to talk about her husband’s abandonment as he photographs her in the Wyoming mountains. Their light-hearted flirtations quickly come to a halt, leading to a brief chase and struggle that ends with her brutal murder at his hands.

With a well-timed runtime and airtight pacing, the film shifts between various years and locations in the 1970s, offering a semi-linear portrayal of Cheryl Bradshaw’s (Kendrick) life as a struggling actress in Los Angeles and fragmented glimpses of Alcala’s crimes and victims. This approach, together with the feature’s atmospheric soundtrack and nostalgic orange colour scheme, builds a palpable sense of dread and tension leading up to the inevitable encounter. The snapshots of Alcala’s crimes raise the stakes, while the focus on Cheryl’s perspective grounds the narrative, making for a nerve-wracking, emotionally charged experience.

Despite his adeptness at getting away with murder, Alcala is not portrayed as misunderstood, or even heroic in a perverse way. He is no more charming than he needs to be, and certainly not a larger-than-life master of manipulation that operates on a higher intellectual plane than the people around him. Laura (Nicolette Robinson) immediately recognises Alcala as her friend’s murderer but she fails to enlist the help of the show’s producers or the Los Angeles police department. Even the deeply chauvinistic Bachelor #2 (Jedidiah Goodacre) warns Bradshaw to be careful of Alcala after witnessing the latter’s disturbing behaviour behind the scenes. It takes approximately halfway into the date for Bradshaw to go from charmed to alarmed, and tells him that she is not going anywhere with him. It is only Amy (Autumn Best), a young, runaway girl living off stolen chocolate and coins from launderettes, who appears to fall for his act.

Photography plays an important supporting role in the thriller, as Alcala approaches many of his victims under the guise of a photographer seeking a muse, and keeps a collection of their pictures in his car. When Amy flips through the album, the women in the photographs look back at her, and after she points to one she likes, Alcala glances over and remarks that he won $500 for that shot, as if he were talking about a specimen on display rather than a person captured on film. There is no embellished praise for his skill as a photographer, nor are there attempts to reimagine his legacy as a troubled artist; he remains defined by his violence.

Christina Yang

Woman of the Hour is released on Netflix on 18^th October 2024.

Watch the trailer for Woman of the Hour here: