(Credits: Netflix)

Woman of the Hour is one of Netflix’s recent releases, directed by and starring Anna Kendrick. The film is the actor’s directorial debut and follows the unsettling true story of Rodney Alcala, a serial killer in the late 70’s who was otherwise known by his nickname of ‘the dating game killer’ and Cheryl Bradshaw, the woman who discovered his true identity.

The script was written by Ian MacDonald and later uploaded to the infamous industry site, ‘The Black List’, a collection of the most popular scripts that haven’t yet been produced. Netflix soon bought the screenplay and Kendrick was attached to star, with Chloe Okuno originally set to direct the project. However, this later changed and Kendrick become involved as a director and producer. 

The story follows Bradshaw, an aspiring actor living in Los Angeles, who was encouraged to participate in a television show called The Dating Game, which happened at the same time that Alcala was in the midst of a murder spree. The set-up of the show is simple – three mysterious bachelors hide behind a screen, and one woman asks questions to pick one person to hopefully date. However, Bradshaw has a gut feeling about Alcala and decides to go off-script, asking increasingly difficult questions to weed him out from the others, eventually ‘winning’ a date with him, but later declining due to her instinctive feeling that he wasn’t trustworthy.

In a strange sequence of events, there is someone in the audience who recognises Alcala as somebody who hurt her friend, and along with Bradshaw, the two inadvertently figure out his true identity and the danger that he poses. The killer was eventually jailed for the murder of five people in Orange County, however, it was later revealed that he was responsible for nearly 130 deaths, with his conviction largely being attributed to Bradshaw’s intervention.

The film also explores the sexism that women in the industry experienced, a still relevant issue that Kendrick has spoken about during press interviews for the film, explaining how the story feels, “very personal”. Despite the fact that Alcala was a registered sex offender, he was still given a place on the television show, a massive breach of safety for all the contestants. Alcala only targeted women and girls on his killing sprees, also sexually assaulting them and posing their bodies for sadistic photographs that were later discovered in his home. 

Similarly serial killer Ted Bundy, Alcala was a conventionally attractive man, and because of this, the producers felt there was no need to investigate his character.

A prosecutors who consulted on the making of the film said, “The Dating Game was a risque G-rated show that ran for over 10 years in southern California. It was filled with silly double entendre and reflected a far more innocent time before television became overrun with cringey reality TV. And it reflected a more innocent time in America, especially when it comes to our collective understanding of sexual predators.” 

Woman of the Hour is now streaming on Netflix, and is currently one of their most watched recent releases.