Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders

Do you have any idea how wretched a film has to be for me to consider it the worst "true" serial killer-themed movie ever? Well, this one gets that honor. How it was humanly possible to make a movie worse than SPECK boggles my mind. But this crew did. Oh wait, I know why: 1. Here's a movie whose title suggests it will only appeal to true crime buffs. So let's alienate the only possible fan base this movie could have by changing EVERYTHING factual about the case. Nevermind the fact that the real Ken Bianchi was a slick BS artist. Nope, this movie turns him into Kevin Spacey from THE USUAL SUSPECTS. And what's with that title, you ask? Weren't there two Hillside Stranglers? Yes. Yes, there were. But Angelo Buono is a minor character in this piece. Forget the fact that he was the actual brains behind the crimes and was in effect Ken's mentor in murder. Angelo gets one brief scene and then falls off the face of the earth. Interestingly, Angelo's criminal trial was the longest in United States history up to that point. Do they even see fit to give us little slices of information like that in the closing credits? Nah. Because research is hard.

2. There's this wonderful new invention out there called a tripod. It allows a camera to be placed in a fixed position for a steady, undistracting shot. Our cinematographer hasn't heard of this invention. Therefore, he shoots every scene in a circular dolly shot. No, seriously. EVERY scene. Sometimes to break the monotony of the circular dolly shots, we get a circular dolly shot superimposed onto ANOTHER circular dolly shot. Yay.

3. Our psychiatrist Samantha is such a model of professionalism that she keeps candid nude pictures of herself hanging on the wall in her study. I guess this is to provide a conversation piece to visiting patients and law enforcement personnel. She's also apparently so absorbed in her casework that she can never seem to fasten the top 6 or 7 buttons on her blouse. It's impossible to give a tinker's squat about Samantha because her only character development consists of her having increasingly half-hearted sex with a parade of drugged-out strangers.

4. When the story lags, cut to another drug-fueled orgy! Not that you'll be able to see much, because for these sequences they seem to have strapped a camera onto a hummingbird. A hummingbird with a penchant for annoyingly long dissolves. And because recutting a film to meet an R-rating costs money, let's just digitally fog certain props and naked characters that the MPAA finds offensive. Ah, digital fogging. It's not just for Japanese pornos anymore! Classy.

In conclusion, this movie fails as a serial killer biopic. It fails as a character study. It fails as a procedural. It fails as a horror film. It fails as a suspense film. But if you look at it as an Impassioned Plea for Tolerance and Acceptance of the Circular Dolly Shot, you'll find no better example.

What a way to botch a movie. This crew had the money and the know-how, but still they managed to ruin what could have been an OK movie.

The problem is that the story is told from the perspective of the psychiatrist, played by Brittany Daniel. Now they story is supposed to be about a serial killer. The title is quite misleading, as if the movie were about the murders. It's not. They show one kidnapping and murder. From then on it's all about the psychiatrist. What does she do? Interview, meet with, and hypnotize a suspect. So we get 3 or 4 extended boring sequences of that. And they are not particularly interesting at all. The villain here is not one bit scary, menacing, or of interest, although well-performed by Clifton Collins Jr.

Any other movie would have told this story from the perspective of the killers and cops, which would be more fun to watch. What makes the psychiatrist at all noteworthy is that Daniel is pretty and lives with a drug user/dealer who spends his time partaking in drug and sex orgies. She's gets also involved. And those are the only watchable moments in this movie.

There are some short scenes of cops raiding suspects homes, but nothing to get one's attention. Daniel has a friend DA who is running the case. This is rather politically correct anachronistic non-sense. How many young women were at the DA's office in LA in the 70s? Another problem, this person is played by Lake Bell, who is utterly incompetent at re-recording her own voice track. Perhaps because she barely moves her lips when she speaks, but it looks like a foreign-dubbed movie. And her character is not likable or watchable.

On top of that, sometime after 30 minutes, the movie makes clear what is going on with the suspects and who did what and why. So for 55 minutes we have to wait for the movie to work out what we already know is going on- again, this happens through conversations, not even flashbacks.

Another absurd thing is that there are 4 or so scenes where things are censored- blurred- as if we were watching a TV-cut of an R-rated movie. One rarely sees that and it's ridiculous. This is, thankfully, a hard-R-rated movie and they blurred some sex-scenes and drug paraphernalia! One has to wonder what went on in people's mind's as they were editing this thing.

Finally, another non-sensical thing is how this movie is filmed: in constant motion, with the camera circling and rotating, and going in circles at all times- all times. The camera is never still. This is fine for the credits and perhaps during the drug/madness moments. But it becomes nauseating and silly after a while. Again, there's a time for everything but non-stop revolving camera movements are just annoying.

The only reasons to watch this movie are Brittany Daniel and Joleigh Fioreavanti, who starts off the movie beautifully. There's some good acting, too. But otherwise, the movie fails miserably in direction, story-telling, camera-work.

What seems to be a sort-of follow up to 2004's "The Hillside Strangler", in this one, "Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders" begins with the suspected Strangler, Kenneth Bianchi (Clifton Collins Jr.) captured and brought in for questioning from Dr. Samathan Stone (Brittany Daniel). The film tells the story of Dr. Samantha Stone and what she goes through during her time on the Strangler case. Not only does she deal with sexism from male detectives, but an abusive boyfriend, and of course Kenneth Bianchi and the is-he-or-isn't-he question that she must ask herself. Her only confidant is a former friend, the District Attorny Jillian Dunne (Lake Bell).

"Rampage" is an interesting film: Fantastic performances from Clifton Collins Jr. as Kenneth Bianchi, and the lovely Lake Bell is terrific as Jillian Dune. However it is almost hard to take Brittany Daniel seriously as a psych doctor, though she gives an admirable performance. Some of the camera techniques are very unusual, particularly at the drug-using party scenes. They add something to the film to liven it up I suppose, which is needed, because the film plods at times, and the pacing seems a little off - the first interrogation for example was far too long. The 70's outfits are fantastic though. The standout performance is obviously Clifton Collins Jr., and the way he pulls of the "personalities" of the Strangler are worth watching this film for, even if it is unfortunately disappointing.

I have read the books and case studies on the Hillside Stranglers and this film has little to nothing to do with the true events. How can they even call this a "serial killer" film and not show any (oh, OK part of one) of the killings? The rating hypes up violence and there really is not any in this piece of crap. This "film" is so pathetic it's like some kind of soft-core, made for cable fake porn. If all I wanted to see was naked broads, I would rent a real porn. Where is the killing? Where is the blood and carnage promised on the box? There's no amount of c-level actress t&a that could save this waste of celluloid. Real fans of violent, exploitive cinema beware: This movie blow's it big time. Save your money and avoid this crappy flick.

Fisher's film about the Hillside stranger killings, is not a homage to the 70s or a realistic film by any means. Actually its a pretty horrible softcore porn like crap put out by Hollywood that i wish i didn't waste my time on. I don't get how it cost a whole million dollars to make a crappy film like this. I mean thats not too much for a budget, but even that million is wasted here. The cast is not good, even clifton Collins was not impressive while i blame the screenplay and weird direction. The atmosphere was nonexistent, dialogues just stupid. the cinematography didn't help, quite confusing unimpressive work from Eliot Rockett. The film is not recommended by me by any means, skip it big time.--- IMDb Rating: 4.0, my rating: 5/10