The Hillside Strangler (2004)

Very disturbing with explicit strangling scenes. Don't know how faithful this film is to the facts.

It's very disturbing with explicit strangling and choking scenes. It scared the wits out of me seeing these two men killing one woman after another. I don't know how faithful this film is to the facts. According to documents, they killed at least 10 people before being arrested.

Nicholas Turturro is frightening as one of the killers. He looks and acts like a crazy person.

This film is more curiosity-provoking than interesting. I give it two and half a stars out of five. September 20, 2008

Did it's Job

. I hate to say it but this film did it's job. I was first turned to it by Libby who told me that it was too much for her...So naturally It was my next rental from Blockbuster. I have to say this was one messed up flick. It was brutally honest and it didn't hold back on the real story of the Hillside Stranglers. The only facts that it changes were the names and identities of some of the victims and a few other small facts like the Lawyer that had a friend of his rough up the stranglers for holding two women a prisoners in a white slave racket that they were running.

This flick was even more disturbing in the fact of the ways that the victims were portrayed. There are some scenes that director Chuck Parello goes to the Alfred Hitchcock technique used in Frenzy where he showed the first couple of Victims in their brutal deaths and eventually wined down and gave the audience fleeting glimpses of the murder. I can see where some people are disgusted by this film and even in the audio commentary on the DVD the director himself talks about how he was shaking on the day they were filming some of the scenes. He even remarked that one of the locations was too close to one of the real sites where one of the abductions took place There is a scene with Natasha Melnick that is burned in my mind and I had to call on an old friend of mine named Hunter to deal with the film and the images that were not seen but you knew that they were there because you know that yes the actress that was in the scene finished the scene was wrapped then received a loud applause by the crew and went off to (in the case of Aimee Brooks in Monster man) Get killed in another flick. However you are also faced with the reality that the character that she was playing did not get up and go home. That is the part that haunts me the most about this film. The fact that you can't say to yourself that it's only a movie.

The unfortunate truth is that I felt that this film was very nicely done. the cast was outstanding in their performances including C Thomas Howell and Nick Turturro
as the killers. as well as great performances by the earlier mentioned Natasha Melnick, Brandin Rackley, Kent Masters King, and Allison Lang. and Bob Shay's wife Lynn was also in the film. Also the film was well shot and I liked the cinematography. the Truth is that these guys from Tartan pictures know how to make a movie. except of coarse for the SUVS that were not around in 1977

Now for my loyal followers I Don't feel like giving the Totals of this one. I found it in poor taste
February 9, 2008

C. Thomas Howell Looks As Sick As This Film

Keeping it short and simple. This is a sick film with acting that is not very good. It reminds one of a "B" movie from the 1970s. C. Thomas Howell looks like he has partied too much. He has lost a lot of weight and his face (with the aid of some powder) looks like something out of "The Night of the Living Dead." There us an interview with Howell on the DVD where he seems to try to save face, but comes off really weird (like a space case). This is not a great film, but it is entertainment for anyone who enjoys cheap trash with two-dimensional characters. November 21, 2007

Grim, downbeat...you get the idea

The sordid tale of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, the killing cousins who strangled their way to infamy in 1970s Los Angeles, finally made its way to the big screen (or at least straight to DVD) with director Chuck Parello's 2004 film "The Hillside Strangler". The movie absolutely oozes evil out of every pore, which is just as well considering its grimy subject matter. Bianchi and Buono would pose as cops or modeling agents to lure in girls, and then would kill them and dump their bodies around town during a four-month period in 1977 and 1978. Actually, the two engaged in lots of sordid activities. Bianchi was a chronic thief who posed as a psychologist when he moved out to California in the late 1970s. Buono was a car thief, sadist, and child abuser who ran a car upholstery business in L.A. When Bianchi hooked up with Buono, bad things were sure to follow. And they did. Ten murders, with two more attributed to Ken Bianchi in Washington after he left Los Angeles. Once the authorities apprehended them their trials drug on for years, well into the 1980s, largely because of the scheming machinations of Kenneth Bianchi. He was an accomplished liar as well as a heartless killer.

Parello's film covers most of Buono's and Bianchi's antics, starting with a look at Ken's unsuccessful career as a security guard in Rochester, New York. When his hopes of becoming a police officer end in frustration, Kenny (played by a gaunt C. Thomas Howell) heads to L.A. to stay with his loudmouthed cousin Angelo (Nick Turturro in the performance of his career). The two have an unusual relationship, to say the least. Angelo is an abusive, misogynistic cretin who quickly asserts emotional control over the weaker Bianchi. In no time at all the two set up a brothel in Buono's house, a plan that quickly sours when a rival threatens to kill them for stealing his women. This incident serves as the impetus for murder, as Buono and Bianchi seek revenge against the prostitutes that supposedly sold them out. Meanwhile, Ken Bianchi works hard to maintain a façade of respectability. He lives with a nice woman who bears him a child, but his dependence on his cousin and his various scams soon undermine the relationship. This woman eventually pulls up stakes and moves back to Washington. It is while he's pursuing her that Bianchi commits the two murders that bring about his arrest.

"The Hillside Strangler" is a deeply, DEEPLY disturbing look at two sociopathic personalities. It's a movie that will stay with you long after the credits roll, mostly because of the grimly effective performances from C. Thomas Howell and Nick Turturro. Both actors really nail down their parts, especially Turturro as the hateful Angelo Buono. He steals nearly every scene he appears in. His character spouts the most barbaric, anti-female language I've ever heard in a movie. He's so over the top that I cringed during many of his scenes. In fact, if you can watch the dinner scene between Turturro's Buono and his mother Jenny (Lin Shaye) without inwardly shriveling, you're a stronger man than I. C. Thomas Howell is just as effective and, without a doubt, just as creepy as Turturro's Buono. It's tough to watch Howell's Bianchi cackle as he turns out the light on one of his victim's in Washington at the end of the film, or hear him say with deep relish, "Let's get us another girl*!" at the restaurant without feeling deeply disturbed. On a lighter note, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the luscious Aimee Brooks in a small part as one of the most unfortunate victims in the entire ordeal (She can dance, too!).

Then there are the killings, which are graphic and shown without any sense of pity for the victim. I've noticed this a lot in many Hollywood offerings these days. The viewer really has to bring his or her own sense of morality to a movie like "The Hillside Strangler" because the filmmakers and scriptwriters refuse to make moral judgments about the perversities on display. We know that Buono and Bianchi are monsters, we know they preyed on numerous women and destroyed the lives of countless people in the process, but we don't really see any of that on the screen. There aren't scenes showing the families of the victims in a state of complete devastation because of the horrific crimes, nor do we find release through lengthy courtroom sequences. In this way, I would have to say that Chuck Parello's "The Hillside Strangler" is more an exploitation film than a serious examination of the Buono and Bianchi crime spree. It's a film that exists to show murder, mayhem, and unbridled criminality--period. If you think you will have a problem with that, if you must have a denouement that shows the punishment of absolute evil, you might want to give "The Hillside Strangler" a pass.

O.k., the extras. Tartan throws us a few bones here. We get a commentary track with director Parello, a few deleted/extended scenes that don't add much to the proceedings, trailers, and a lengthy interview with C. Thomas Howell that has to be seen to be believed. Howell comes off as a complete whack job, a total space cadet whose ramblings achieve epic proportions of Keanu Reeves-like vacuousness. I'm at a loss to tell you what he actually talked about in this interview. I will say that if this is what the actor is normally like, it's no wonder he went from making A-list material like "Red Dawn" and "The Hitcher" to low budget stuff like this and "Glass Trap". What a weirdo! Anyway, there you go. The performances are good, and Aimee Brooks is hot. If "The Hillside Strangler" sounds like your cup o' tea, insert the DVD and push play.


* "Girl" wasn't the word he used. I'm not allowed to use the actual term, apparently. Sorry.
February 2, 2007

botched

Another missed opportunity.

I won't go into any of the plot.
You have a pretty good idea what it's about: two cousins who go on a killing spree in late '70s L.A.

The bummer here is that this flick could have been another classic like the first Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, had they given more thought and time to developing some of the characters.
Maybe another thirty minutes would have solved it, because the screenplay itself, as it stands, is not bad at all--BUT if your main leads are cardboard, what is there for the audiance to respond to?

When will filmmakers realize that without character development you have nothing.
The kills in this flick are mindless and stupid, just as the killers themselves.
Take a look at Hitchcock's Psycho? What saves it? They took the time to develope the Norman Bates character. Plain and simple. Without it they would have had the facade of a spooky old house--and nothing more.

Why does William Lustig/Joe Spinell's Maniac work so well?
Great acting in a developed role.
Why does Taxi Driver work so well (with the exception of the tacked-on ending)? Travis Bickle, the Jody Foster character--and even the Harvey Keitel character--are all well defined, three-dimensional.
Usually a must--if you want a solid flick on your hands.

November 22, 2005

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