Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2004)

Based on a true story, prepare to relive the terrifying rampage of the Hillside Strangler as psychiatrist Samantha Stone (Brittany Daniel, White Chicks, Joe Dirt, Club Dread) interviews Kenneth Bianchi (Clifton Collins, Jr., Mindhunters, Tigerland, The Rules of Attraction) to try and decipher the motivations behind his frightening reign of fear.

"P"is for PUTZ

Putz is a yiddish word that more or less means "jerk",which is exactly the word that springs to mind when I am confronted with the reviews that have been given for this film...You want realism read a book,or go watch one of those A&E biographies(talk about B-O-R-I-N-G !)about serial murder..When something is"based on"it usually means that the resulting work is more fiction than fact...And this film is quite candid about the fact that it is only"based on"the Hillside Strangler murders...So somebody wanted to make a serial muder movie that incorporates elements from reality but which also allows the imagination a wide berth...So what?"Ghandi"the award winning biographical film about the Indian statesman had a lot of fiction thrown in in order to make the film something other than an out and out snoozer,but who complained?..As for the acting,if these people had more money they would have hired better actors,but,believe me,the acting here is about on-par with your average made-for-teevee film,so it ain't all that bad(and what made-for-teevee film gives as much nudity and violence as this movie does?)As for the camera work,I can only refer anyone interested to the technique used by the late Sergio Leone,the man who gave us the Italien western genre...All of those long and utterly meaningless shots of the eyes,or the nosees(complete with flies buzzing around)or the mouths of gunfighters before a shoot-out,and this guy has been hailed as a genius..So the director in this film likes to get cute with his camera...So what again?He wouldn't be the first and he will not be the last either...Given that this film is essentially an exploration into the mind of a murdering creep with multiple personalities the technique used here seems spot on...
In sum then,this is a low budget movie about a serial killer..It has sex,drugs,murder,madness,average acting,and makes no bones about the fact that it ISN'T an accurate re-telling of the real events but is,instead,merely a story that has been "based on"the facts...That said,the film was about average..It won't put you to sleep,and that has got to be a plus considering some of the stuff that's out there competing for your attention. October 9, 2006

A silly police drama

The story is so unrealistic that its off putting. A serial killer is loose. So the police call in a psychologist to examine the suspect. From the start, I thought something wrong as she is certainly not dressed like a professional person doing this sort of work. More like a sexy woman going to a party. In the process of trying to get close to the alleged killer, we find out she is quite a free spirit with plenty of sex and drugs with several people one who she does not know. With AIDS now days, you really think a doctor would know better. Towards the end, she hypnotized the alleged killer and finds out that he is lying. Unfortunately for me, I have been hypnotized several times and I did not find this scene particularly convincing. So I did not enjoy what was probably suppose to be the highlight.

The acting, I thought was okay. Nothing special. August 9, 2006

Shampage: The "Not So True" Hillside Strangler Murders

*** SPOILER ALERT *** Based on a true story. LOL. The only basis of truth to this story is the murders happened in California and the murderer's name was Kenneth Bianchi. After that there is no truth. The police keep saying that if they don't have enough evidence to convict him they will have to let him go. When the California court system got a hold of this guy he was already indicted for murder up in Washington State. He was not going to be let go. He never was released nor did he show up at the psychiatrists' house. The shame of it is that this movie has so many untruths about the case that the younger generations of watchers who do not know the true story is going to go on thinking that this is what really happened. If you want to watch one man's fantasy about what might have happened, then go ahead and watch this movie. If you want the facts, stay as far away as you can from this one. June 6, 2006

Very Good

A sexy ..and I do mean sexy doctor, Samantha is a psychologist assigned to the murder case of the so-called 'hillside strangler'. She comes upon Kenneth Bianca who is at first accused of these crimes but needs to be assessed in order to further tie him to the murders.

At first convinced of his innocence Samatha sets out to do more test on Ken.


Along with this assignment Samantha finds joy is drugs and sex ( she's gorgeous). As the murders come close to home she decides to up the stakes and hynotized Kenneth to see which of his multiple personalities -if any- could have committed these horrible crimes.


Dealing with a psychotic mind which masks high intelligence, she must pull out all the stops to get this killer at his own game.



This movie was surprisingly Good.


I recommend this. April 24, 2006

Panning mania to the extreme but why???

What is up with this director desire to do overlapping and panning camera shots? I mean if you going to use it a few times, as pointless as it is...no problem but for every scene? C'mon now...aint we getting a little carried away here. I was dizzy after the first 5 minutes and still manage to watch the whole movie which is a feat that i challenge anyone here to take. You would most likely turn the movie off within 10 minutes and burst out profanities in the process.

The only reason i watch the whole thing not because i wanted to know about this sick killer's multiple personality defense interview but the person who was giving the interview, the ultra hot Brittany Daniel. We went gaga over her role as the devious temptress in Dawson's Creek but as a 70's chick doing the interview....OMG! It almost seems like she was enjoying the fantasy about this guy based on her expression and body movements. She was dress to kill with that 70's disco outfit. The movie scenes was accurate to the times which is a plus.

Still it was a badly directed movie with horried camera work and the dialog was bad too(accurate or not) that even the lovely Brittany cannnot save. Not recommended even if your a fan of the Hillside Strangler. And if you are...seek help! April 9, 2006

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