By Brandy Hale
Staff Writer
Netflix released the film “Woman of the Hour” on Oct. 18, written by Ian MacAllister McDonald and directed by Anna Kendrick, who made her directorial debut with the film. Along with directing the movie, Kendrick also acted as a main character, alongside other actors like Daniel Zovatto, Autumn Best and Pete Holmes. The film first premiered in 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The story follows a man named Rodney Alcala, played by Zovatto, who has a career in photography and talks young girls into becoming the subjects of his photographs, going on dates with them and eventually killing them. While being a rapist and murderer, he has a demeanor that lures these young girls into a mentally toxic relationship. “Woman of the Hour” shows the stories of five different girls who all fell into his trap of manipulation.
Alcala was first arrested for molesting two underage children for three years and was then released where he continued raping and killing numerous women. He was tried three times in court for killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe before officially being found guilty. The first two times, it was overturned. In 2010, he was sentenced for the murder of Samsoe, along with assaulting and killing four additional women. He was given the death sentence, but died from natural causes in 2021.
“He was so easy to trust,” one of the victims told People Magazine. “He had a way of talking to people that really put them at ease.”
The movie takes place during a similar timeline of the story, set in the year 1978. Kendrick plays Sheryl Bradshaw, who is based on a real life victim named Cheryl. In Bradshaw's story, both in the movie and real life, she goes on a dating show to interview potential bachelors for a date. To everyone's surprise, the third bachelor is Alcala. While watching the movie, it can be guessed where the storyline is moving.
The movie received a rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. The film is both emotional and exhilarating, deserving the high rating as it brings awareness to many issues faced by women in society and sheds light on the case of Alcala.
While the story revolves around the American serial killer, both Kendrick and McDonald agree that he is not the focus, rather it is the irony and lessons the case brings to life.
“He wasn’t the thing that interested me... He seemed to represent something that we were kind of wrestling with as a country at the time, which is ordinary people looking the other way so that bad people could get away with bad behavior” Kendrick said, according to Rolling Stone. “It’s this nameless, amorphous threat that’s in the room all the time — but you can’t fight it if you can’t even really find it.”
Alcala had been reported a few times, but similarly to the movie, the women that would report him were not taken seriously by authorities. Laura, played by Nicolette Robinson, was a character in the movie who was used as representation of those women who were silenced.
“Laura…is ignored, is meant to express all of the grief and frustration of the real-life people who tried to report Alcala,” Kendrick told Tudum.
While emotional for those who watch the gut wrenching thriller, the film holds extremely impactful messages for all men, boys, women and girls in the world. Anyone who watches the movie may find a new perspective on life.
