Excellent treatment of this horrible true crime story. Very powerful and tragic. Anna Kendrick chooses, after a brief but sufficiently tense introduction of the character Alcala, to focus on 2 main characters in the long list of victims ascribed to him. The first lady is Cheryl, an aspiring actress. We meet her during an audition and see her being invited to join the cast of a dating show. Thoughtfully woven into Cheryl's story, we meet Monique Hoyt, a young runway whom is approached on the street by Alcala with his usual MO "You're so pretty, let me take your picture".
The movie is beautifully shot in mostly warm tones in Vancouver, BC and different locations throughout California. We're clearly in the 70's, but apart from the abhorrent useless police and rampant misogyny, the decor never gets the centre stage. It might as well have been shot today. The movie is calm, almost cool in its telling of the story. Very few horrid images are shown, the victims are respected and yet your imagination gets enough input to be fully engaged.
Anna Kendrick does a phenomenal job here as a debutant director. Hats off. The 94 minutes this movie offered were too short, but also exactly right.
The movie is beautifully shot in mostly warm tones in Vancouver, BC and different locations throughout California. We're clearly in the 70's, but apart from the abhorrent useless police and rampant misogyny, the decor never gets the centre stage. It might as well have been shot today. The movie is calm, almost cool in its telling of the story. Very few horrid images are shown, the victims are respected and yet your imagination gets enough input to be fully engaged.
Anna Kendrick does a phenomenal job here as a debutant director. Hats off. The 94 minutes this movie offered were too short, but also exactly right.