Who is Rodney Alcala, the dating game killer in Woman of the Hour?

Anna Kendricks directorial debut, Woman of the houris based on the true story of a murderer Rodney Alcala – but who really was the dating game killer?

The film, set to hit Netflix on Friday, October 18, is based on the notorious serial killer and sexual predator who found his next potential victim on national television when he appeared in a 1978 episode of Netflix The dating game. Daniel Zovatto will portray Alcala in the true crime thriller, while Kendrick will portray Cheryl Bradshaw, the bachelorette at the center of the infamous episode.

Although Kendrick was originally only intended to star in the film, she eventually offered to direct. “I think I invested particularly in the script and in parts of the script that (my character) isn't in, in a way that I wouldn't normally do,” she told Netflix's Tudum in September 2024 . “I really like this complicated journey of a woman who shrinks and is very compliant and then manages to rebel and take back some power.”

Alcala was eventually caught and sentenced to death for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He later pleaded guilty to two other murders committed in New York. However, the true number of victims is unknown. Many believe it could be as high as 130.

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While Woman of the hour will revisit the details of Alcala's crimes. The story will take a unique approach by focusing on the women whose lives he shortened more than the killer himself.

So who was Rodney Alcala? Us explains below:

The key players

In Woman of the hourZovatto plays real-life serial killer and sex offender Alcala, who was convicted of seven murders in two states, California and New York. (His actual death toll is estimated at 130.)

During his various trials, prosecutors alleged that Alcala – who worked as a photographer – “played” with his victims, often strangling them until they lost consciousness and then waiting until they woke up to repeat the process, before he killed her. During a trial, a police officer referred to Alcala as a “killing machine.”

Alcala was arrested in 1979 and although he was sentenced to death in 1980 and 1986, judges changed their minds twice before he was finally sentenced to death in 2010 thanks to new evidence. He died in 2021 from unknown natural causes.

Women of the hour will mainly focus on Kendrick's character, Cheryl Bradshawwhom Alcala met as Bachelor No. 1 The dating gamee in 1978. He was cast even though he was already in prison for child molestation, they say The Washington Post. (Alcala and Bradhaw never actually went through with their date, as Bradshaw told the show's casting coordinator she got “weird vibes” from him.)

The story will also touch on the women Alcala murdered. His confirmed victims include Robin Samsoe, Ellen Jane Hover, Cornelia Crilley, Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb And Jill Parenteau. (He was also charged with the murder of Christine Ruth Thornton but the charges were later dropped.)

Another important player in Alcala's history is Steven Macka homicide detective with the Huntington Beach Police Department in California who played a leading role in reopening the twice-cleared murder cases against Alcala. After searching through items that previous investigators had discovered decades earlier in an Alcala locker, Mack noticed two rose earrings in a small red satin bag. Further DNA testing, including Alcala's own samples, further linked him to Lamb's murder and the unsolved murders of seven other women in the Los Angeles area, New York City and Granger, Wyoming, in the 1970s.

The essentials

Alcala killed for almost a decade before appearing The dating game – and was reportedly already in prison for child molestation – but his participation on the show earned him the name “Dating Game Killer.” During the show, Bradshaw asked questions of three men behind a barricade before ultimately settling on a date with Alcala. She later turned down the opportunity after feeling “weird vibes” from him, according to the show's casting coordinator.

Woman of the hour will focus on the infamous episode and the murders that took place both before and after it aired in 1978.

Screenwriter Ian MacAllister McDonald stumbled upon the dating game story on a true crime website that inspired him to write “Woman of the Hour.” “The context around him was what I found really interesting,” McDonald told Netflix’s Tudum in September. “He seemed to represent something that we as a country were kind of struggling with at the time, which was normal people looking the other way so that bad people could get away with bad behavior.”

Why it's a big deal

Woman of the Hour is Kendrick's directorial debut and tells the story of one of the most notorious serial killers of the '70s as he appears on a dating game show on national television. That's frankly bizarre enough, but the film has caused a stir for choosing to turn the serial killer's story on its head by “focusing on Alcala's victims and the lives he cut short.” , says Netflix, the comedic commentary on Hollywood sexism and the choice to frame the narrative through a female lens.

In the film, Bradshaw takes control of the situation by asking intelligent and quick-witted questions that allow her to see Alcala's repulsive nature in real time, it is said TIME. During Alcala's real dating game appearance, the questions were fairly standard and Alcala's answers were just plain creepy.

“I’ll serve you for dinner. What's your name and what do you look like?” Bradshaw asked, according to the outlet. Alcala replied, “I'm called the banana and I'm good-looking.” As she followed him, he said, “Peel me.”

What people say

“In true crime circles you sometimes hear people say, 'Oh yeah, he's kind of like that.' Ted Bundy',” McDonald told Tudum from Alcala. “But the truth is that he is quite the opposite. Ted Bundy was a chameleon. He was really good at pretending to be something he wasn't. And Rodney Alcala really seems to have ignored many of his worst tendencies. It wasn’t that he was being sneaky, it was that other people were actively looking the other way.”

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While “Woman of the Hour” officially appears on Netflix on October 18th, the first reviews are coming in after the film premieres at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival. The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars and called it a “fascinating and frightening, stranger-than-fiction story”, which was an “unusual” choice for Kendrick's directorial debut.

“She is a compelling debut filmmaker who captures the feel of a time and a range of places with ease, despite not filming on location in the United States,” the medium said, adding that McDonald's script was a “dark Commentary on…”be the morality of dating shows, or lack thereof, and the razor-sharp danger of dating for women, the constant awareness that violence is always close at hand, a bruised ego that turns evil in the blink of an eye.”