The Hillside Strangler Review

Hillside Strangler, The
In the late 70's two cousins raped and murdered numerous women in and around the Los Angeles area. This drama retraces their crimes.

by Scott Russon |
Published on
Release Date:

12 Nov 2004

Running Time:

98 minutes

Certificate:

18

Original Title:

Hillside Strangler, The

Director Chuck Parello (Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer Part 2 and Ed Gein - notice a pattern here?) returns to familiarly disturbing ground, with the focus on serial-killing cousins Kenneth (Howell) and Angelo (Turturro), aka The Hillside Strangler.

Other than giving an exploitative, bare-bones account of how the duo went on to brutally rape and dispose of numerous women in LA during the late '70s, Parello doesn't have much to say. There's little exploration of why they were so abnormally callous, or how their relationship reached such a devastating conclusion, while the handling of the subject matter is objectionably blunt.

It's hard to identify why this film was made, and even harder to find a reason to recommend watching it.

By not providing any real insight, the film is irresponsible, exploitative trash, and a black mark against any thoughtful representation of violence in cinema.
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