Who was serial killer Rodney Alcala and what was The Dating Game?

A new Netflix film dramatises the true story of a serial killer who appeared on a TV dating show in the midst of his crimes.

Woman of the Hour, directed by Anna Kendrick, depicts the crimes of Rodney Alcala, who became known as the “Dating Game Killer”.

Alcala appeared as a bachelor on the Blind Date-style show in 1978, two years before he was convicted of the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

He was eventually found guilty of eight murders in total, however it’s thought he killed many more women and girls. Alcala died in prison in 2021.

Rodney Alcala was a serial killer and sex offender who was found guilty of eight murders across New York, California, and Wyoming between 1971 and 1979.

However, he is suspected of killing more than 100 women and girls.

Posing as a fashion photographer, Alcala often targeted women by complimenting them and then asking to take pictures of them.

In 1980, Alcala was sentenced to death in California for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

His sentence was later overturned by the California Supreme Court and he was granted a new trial. He received the same penalty in the second trial in 1986, but that too was overturned in 2003.

In subsequent years, investigators discovered forensic evidence linking Alcala to other California murders.

At a new trial in 2010, he was found guilty of killing Samsoe as well as four other women aged between 18 and 32 in the years between 1977 and 1979.

In 1994, while in custody, Alcala wrote a book titled You, the Jury (1994), in which he argued he was innocent.

In 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York after he was charged over two further murders from 1971 and 1977. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in New York to 25 years to life.

In 2016 he was charged with the 1977 murder of Christine Ruth Thornton, a woman who investigators had identified in one of his photos.

Alcala died of natural causes in 2021 aged 77 at a hospital near the Corcoran state prison in California.

Alcala became retrospectively known as the Dating Game Killer because of his television appearance in the midst of his killings.

In September 1978, Alcala had taken part in The Dating Game, a US TV show similar in format to the UK’s Blind Date.

The show saw a single woman ask questions to three potential partners who could be seen by the audience, but not by her.

The show would conclude with the woman selecting one of the men to date, based on their answers.

It’s thought Alcala was selected because he was tall, handsome and charming, and producers did not conduct a background check.

In the episode he appeared on, Alcala was chosen by Cheryl Bradshaw at the end of the show.

But Bradshaw later said she decided not to proceed with the date after a conversation with him backstage during which she thought he was “creepy”. The decision likely saved her life.

The original episode of The Dating Game featuring Bradshaw and Alcala no longer exists in full – only snippets of it are available online.

Woman of the Hour opens in 1977 with Alcala encouraging a woman named Sarah to reveal details of her personal life as he photographs her in a remote mountain region of Wyoming.

Things take a sinister turn when Alcala suddenly turns nasty and begins to attack her, setting the tone for the way he preys on several of the women he encounters for the rest of the film.

The film’s timeline jumps around, as the viewer follows a few different strands which each focus on a different woman.

The murders themselves are not shown on screen. Instead, the film focuses on Alcala’s initial encounters with the women and the moments leading up to the killings.

A sizeable portion of the movie is taken up with the day the episode of The Dating Game was filmed.

As well as directing the film, Kendrick plays Bradshaw – the woman who appeared on the dating show alongside Alcala.

Although based on real-life cases, the film takes some artistic licence. For instance, Bradshaw is seen going against the dating show presenter’s wishes by going off-script and asking the bachelors her own questions, giving the film a more feminist angle than was the case in reality.

The date between Bradshaw and Alcala is also an invention. In reality, they never made it as far as a date, but the film imagines their trip to a bar and a subsequent altercation in the car park.

One of Alcala’s victims, Monique Hoyt, was able to escape after being attacked – and hers is one of the stories presented in the film.

Aged 15, Hoyt was posing for photos in February 1979 in an isolated mountainous area when Alcala knocked her unconscious and sexually assaulted her.

When she came round, Hoyt was aware she’d been raped, but, in an attempt to escape, she convinced Alcala she wasn’t angry and wanted to pursue a relationship with him.

The two of them returned to his car and drove on. When Alcala stopped at a petrol station to use the bathroom, Hoyt fled from his car and raised the alarm.

The film shows the woman, named Amy in the film, taking shelter in a nearby diner until the police arrive and arrest him. But although Hoyt escaped, in reality Alcala was released soon after when his mother posted his bail.

Anna Kendrick was initially due to produce and star in the film, but later also signed up as director. In press materials for the film, the 39-year-old has said she knows it will be seen as a surprising choice by some.

She is probably best known for appearing in the Pitch Perfect film series and comedy drama Up in the Air, which earned her an Oscar nomination, plus her appearances in the Twilight movies.

“I can understand why a movie that opens with an act of violence doesn’t really seem like it’s in my wheelhouse,” she acknowledged.

“But I feel like I’ve been through experiences where I can relate to being with another person and suddenly discovering you’re with someone deeply unsafe.”

Speaking about the the project as a whole, she said: “I think the story itself is so compelling because of the idea that this dangerous and violent man went on a show like The Dating Game, where the goal is to choose a good guy, and won. It’s just comically perverse.”

Asked about her attitude towards depicting violence, she said: “In general, my approach was that things that are beautiful should be beautiful, and the things that are awful should be awful.

“Yet the violence in the movie is rarely literal or explicit. I wanted to be removed from the violence without sanitizing it.”

Woman of the Hour premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but Kendrick and the cast were unable to attend or promote the movie at the time due to continuing Hollywood strikes.

The film has received broadly positive reviews from critics, with some saying Kendrick shows promise as a director.

“Kendrick’s image as an actor isn’t necessarily tied to dark, edgy material, but as a director she shows a talent for staging scenes of Hitchcockian suspense alongside her signature wit,” said IndieWire’s Katie Rife.

Screen Rant’s Patrice Witherspoon was less enthusiastic, suggesting the film “is hindered by tonal imbalances and poor editing”.

But the Guardian’s Benjamin Lee said Kendrick “makes a convincing first-time film-maker, capturing the feel of a time and a number of places with ease”.

In a genre where “the gore and gristle of serial killers can become overly fetishised”, he continued, “the deaths are tough to watch without being explicit, restrained without sacrificing the necessary shock value”.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye concluded: “Despite Woman of the Hour’s sometimes shaky execution, its story is undeniably powerful.”