The Terrifying True Story Of Netflix's Crime Thriller Woman Of The Hour

Content warning: This article discusses themes and subject matter that some readers may find triggering, including sexual assault.

Anna Kendrick is set to make her directorial debut with the Netflix original film "Woman of the Hour" — and it's based on a seriously scary true-crime story.

In case you weren't aware of the story behind "Woman of the Hour," Kendrick and her screenwriter Ian McDonald were inspired by Rodney Alcala, a sexual predator and serial killer who murdered multiple women in California in the late 1970s. (Though Alcala was only convicted of five murders, the number of actual murders he committed could be as high as 130.) In case you didn't find Alcala's crimes disturbing enough yet, he was also in possession of thousands of explicit photographs that included underage subjects, one of which ended up reopening a cold case from 1977 years later in 2016.

Okay, wait — what does this have to do with Kendrick? Well, the Oscar-nominated actress will star in and direct "Woman of the Hour," which retells the real-life story about Alcala's appearance on the game show "The Dating Game" (Alcala is sometimes referred to as "The Dating Game Killer," in fact). It's genuinely incredible (in the worst way) that Alcala appeared as an eligible bachelor on this show knowing the horrors he was actively committing at the time — his episode aired in 1978, partway through his murder spree — so it's understandable that Kendrick found the story wholly fascinating, and understandable that she wanted to play Cheryl Bradshaw, the single woman interviewing the onstage contestants (including Alcala). So why is she directing and starring in the movie?

Ahead of the film's streaming release, Anna Kendrick sat down with an interview with Netflix's exclusive outlet Tudum and revealed that she was only supposed to star as Cheryl Bradshaw at first, but that she realized she wanted to direct once she sat with the script. (Kendrick is joined by Daniel Zovatto from "The Pope's Exorcist" as Rodney Alcala and "Veep" star Tony Hale as the game show's host Ed Burke, a reimagined version of real host Jim Lange.)

"Once I pitched myself to direct the movie, I realized that I love the character, but I love the movie as a whole significantly more than I love the character," Kendrick told Tudum. "I think I was particularly invested in the script and in pieces of the script that [my character is] not in, in a way that I normally wouldn't be."

Kendrick also told the outlet that she thought Cheryl's story throughout "Woman of the Hour" is beautifully complex, and tells a story that's all too familiar to women across the world. "I really like the complicated journey of a woman who is shrinking herself and being very pleasing and then manages to rebel and take back some power," Kendrick said. "I love the fact that it isn't as simple as, 'Oh, she asserts herself and everything works out great.' Because this is the bargain we're making every day: How much do I live authentically, and how much danger does that actually put me in?"

An important part of "Woman of the Hour," according to Anna Kendrick and Ian McDonald, is that the story doesn't glamorize Rodney Alcala — and instead gives center stage to the women he preyed upon, making sure that their stories surpass that of the man who cut their lives short. (With creators like Ryan Murphy coming under fire for glamorizing figures like Jeffrey Dahmer, this definitely feels refreshing.) During their research on Alcala's "Dating Game" episode — which Kendrick says was quite hard to find, leading her to rely on websites like Newspapers.com — Kendrick recalled that she discovered an article with the address of one of Alcala's victims, leading to a striking realization when Kendrick realized she knew precisely where the woman had lived ... and that the woman could possibly have heard the sounds of the Pacific Ocean when she died. As a result, Kendrick and McDonald worked this concept into the film, hoping to give a voice to the voiceless.

As for McDonald, who penned the script before Kendrick ever signed on, he found Alcala particularly fascinating as a subject due to the fact that, unlike other famous serial killers, he apparently gave off a very creepy vibe that probably should have raised suspicion. "In true crime circles you'll sometimes hear people say, 'Oh yeah, he's kind of like Ted Bundy,'" McDonald told Tudum. "But the truth of the matter is, he's kind of the opposite. Ted Bundy was a chameleon. He was really good at pretending to be something he wasn't. And Rodney Alcala really seems to have flouted a lot of his worst tendencies. It wasn't that he was being sneaky, it's that other people were kind of actively looking the other way."

"There are so many heroes in this story, but the heroes were outnumbered and outgunned by basically incompetence and negligence and a culture that did not prioritize victims," Kendrick said of the people surrounding Alcala who never reported anything. "Woman of the Hour" drops on Netflix on October 18.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).