Featured Image Credit: Netflix/YouTube/criminologytube
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Thriller
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, Thriller
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
Netflix's Woman of the Hour has already sky-rocketed straight to the prestigious 'No. 1 in Films Today' spot, and it's far from a surprise.
The thriller, starring and directed by Anna Kendrick, is based on the harrowing true crime story of the 'Dating Game Killer', Rodney Alcala, who entered a dating show with aspiring actress Sheryl Bradshaw.
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The film is actually based on real events detailing Alcala's killing spree in the 1970s, before he was eventually arrested and died in prison in 2021 aged 77, having had a previous death sentence overturned.
Check out the official Netflix trailer for Woman of the Hour here:
Now, while many elements of the film are based on true events, some elements have been fictionalised for dramatic effect.
But what did the film actually get right?
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Cheryl (fictionalised in the film with an S) ended up picking Alcala on the programme, but ultimately decided to cancel the date following a 'creepy' conversation with him after the cameras stopped rolling.
Opening up about her decision to pull out of the date last-minute, which ultimately probably saved her life, Bradshaw told the Sydney Telegraph back in 2012: "I started to feel ill.
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"He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again."
She reportedly called up producer Ellen Metzger and said: "There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange.
"I am not comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?"
Thankfully, producers didn't force Bradshaw go through with the date.
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If she did, she almost certainly would have been killed.
Check out Alcala's appearance on the Dating Game back in 1978:
In the film, we see Alcala pick up a teenage runaway after telling her he was a model scout and wanted to photograph her.
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He then takes her into the desert, where he assaults her, and she wakes up covered in bruises with her clothes off while Alcala cries next to her.
Thinking fast, the runaway lulls Alcala into a safe sense of security and asks him to keep the encounter a 'secret' before suggesting they both go back to his place.
Agreeing, Alcala drives them back to LA and stops off at gas station to use the bathroom, which is when the runaway takes her chance and escapes from the car to call the authorities, who eventually arrest him.
Now, it is true that Alcala did pick up a 15-year-old runaway, Monique Hoyt, who was hitchhiking.
He then raped and strangled Hoyt.
She was able to escape after convincing Alcala she wanted to continue a relationship with him before raising the alarm.
However, police were too late, and did not actually arrest him in the end.
Hoyt later testified against Alcala 31 years later in 2010, saying he should get the death penalty for the rape-murder of four women and a 12-year-old girl.
In the film, Alcala brags about being a photographer for the magazine but, in real life, he was actually a typesetter.
He was reportedly hired as a wedding photographer by customers who were totally in the dark regarding his record as a registered sex offender - just like the Dating Game producers, who clearly hadn't done a sufficient background check.
The film sees Alcala name-dropping the Rosemary's Baby director before he murders a woman in her New York apartment in 1971.
The real Alcala did in fact study with Polanski at NYU, where he took a film course, but under the name 'John Berger'.
His second victim was 23-year-old flight attendant, Cornelia Crilley, who he strangled with a stocking - not a scarf, which the movie suggests.
Woman of the Hour is currently available to stream on Netflix.