This story includes mentions of assault and heavy spoilers for the movie Woman of the Hour. Woman of the Hour is the latest release to continue the true-crime trend of centering victims’ stories over the killer’s or even the authorities’ investigations. The film marks Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut—and it's an impressive debut at that, as it hauntingly brings to life the stranger-than-fiction true crime story of how a serial killer went so unnoticed and his victims were so ignored that he was able to appear on the reality show The Dating Game in 1978.
The eerie, ‘70s-set thriller, which hit streaming on Netflix on October 18, 2024, primarily focuses on a fictionalized version of the woman (played by Kendrick) who appeared on a dating reality show with—and picked—a man eventually dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” (Daniel Zovatto). However, its tight hour-and-a-half runtime also illustrates the misfortunes of several women murdered by the serial killer, who was named Rodney Alcala, and how he was caught.
