Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageThe Hillside Strangler (2004)
Director: Chuck Parello
Movie review
From Time Out London
Parello’s sleazy serial-killer movie gropes for the chilling objectivity and disturbing ferocity of ‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer’, to which he directed a pointless sequel. Yet it looks and feels like a ’70s exploitation picture, not least during the repeated scenes of bare-breasted women being brutalised, raped and strangled.The media-styled ‘Hillside Strangler’ was in fact two men: porn-loving, woman-hating sleazeball Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro) and his cousin Kenneth Bianchi (C Thomas Howell), a slippery sociopath who dreamed of joining the LAPD. In the late ’70s, posing as cops, they terrorised Los Angeles, abducting, torturing and murdering a dozen young women, then dumping their ‘posed’ naked bodies in plain view.
But what was the nature of the symbiotic relationship between the two killers, and what fed their violence? Only one scene, in which Angelo and his cousin visit Angelo’s embittered, alcoholic mother – a striking cameo by comic actress Lin Shaye – hints at any kind of behavioural insight.
Author: NF
Time Out London Issue 1786: November 10-17,2004
Cast & crew
Director: Chuck Parello
Producer: Michael Avery, Hamish McAlpine, Michael Muscal
Cast: C Thomas Howell, Nicholas Turturro, Allison Lange, Lin Shaye, Molly Brenner, Aimee Brooks, Kent Masters King full cast
Rated: 18
Duration: 98 mins
UK Release: Nov 12 2004
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke
What do you think?
Post your review now