Maine’s Anna Kendrick Stars in and Directs Netflix Movie About Serial Killer

Maine's Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut in Woman of the Hour, a Netflix movie based on the true story of a game show contestant who was a serial killer.

In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared on The Dating Game, where three "eligible" bachelors, or sometimes bachelorettes, were asked questions about their potential date without seeing them. Imagine a 1970s version of Love Is Blind, also on Netflix where couples don't meet face-to-face until near the end of the season.

The questions could often get a bit racy for 1970s TV, but at the end of the game, the bachelorette would pick the person they wanted to date based on their responses and the show would pay for it.

On The Dating Game episode the movie is based on, Alcala wins a date with bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw, played by Kendrick in the movie. When he was on the show, no one knew that he had murdered five women. Here's a clip of the Dating Game episode from 1978.

The real Cheryl Bradshaw did not go out on the date because she had some flags go up making her not feel comfortable with Alcala who was sentenced to death in California in 2010 for five killings of women and girls in the 1970s and sentenced again in 2013 in New York for two more murders in 2010. He died on death row in 2021.

Woman of the Hour takes some liberties with the facts but comes right out saying the movie is fictionalized based on the actual events. That Dating Game set and the person playing host Jim Lange are way off the actual look.

Woman of the Hour debuts on Netflix on October 18.