Alright, I think I have a new addition to the best horror movies list—and that, my friends, is Woman of the Hour, which was released as part of the 2024 Netflix schedule.
If you haven't seen the film yet, Woman of the Hour is Anna Kendrick's directorial debut, where she also stars as Sheryl, a woman who was on the popular TV show The Dating Game, as a way to put herself out there on TV and break into the entertainment world. But one of the bachelors that she was testing was actually Rodney Alcala, a serial killer who was at the height of his crimes at the time.
Yes, this is based on an actual true story. A serial killer was on a big-time game show and evaded the police for years, and it baffles my mind. I finally had the chance to watch this film, and I have to say Anna Kendrick killed it in her debut. I could talk about everything in this film, but there's one moment that really sold me. The moment I watched it, I knew Kendrick had this down pat.
Overall, The Film Itself Is Utterly Terrifying
Before I get into the actual moment, let me say that Woman of the Year is the scariest film of the year in every way. It's scary as a woman watching it, and it's frightening if you care about a woman in your life – that these men genuinely do exist out there.
This film is different from what you would think is a great horror movie. When people think of horror, they usually think of movies like the Halloween franchise, the Friday the 13th films, or even the best A24 horror movies. It's a true-crime story that definitely has several horror elements.
But Woman of the Hour is a different kind of true crime story that really resonates with you, especially if you have experienced anything like what Sheryl does.
It's the fact that this is seriously based on a real story. It's not the typical serial-killer thriller you would expect because it really focuses on the woman's perspective, seeing their fear rather than watching the serial killer track them down.
And for a woman, there are so many subtle moments in this movie that make this the most terrifying film of the year. It's that feeling of not remembering your fake phone number that you give to the creepy guy when he asks you to recall it. It's that feeling when you feel like your every move is being watched, but you can't walk fast enough. There's so much here that makes this scary.
But my moment – the one that sold me – was right at the very beginning.
That Moment, In The Beginning, With Rodney's First Victim Gets Me
The movie opens with Rodney taking a young woman out to the middle of the desert to take pictures of her. She opens up to him about her failed relationship, and at first, from the camera, it seems like he's a genuinely nice guy. He's listening to her, speaking to her, and making her feel loved.
And then, the moment we start to see her getting weirded out by his advances later on in the scene, the camera angles change. This idea of proportion and distortion takes over. And you instantly feel the goosebumps crawling up your spine when you realize that this dude is terrible freaking news.
I have to give credit where credit is due and say that Daniel Zovatto played this excellently as Rodney. The actor deserves his flowers and more. But his performance was only further enhanced by the way Kendrick framed the shot with the people she worked with.
Do you know how hard it is to convey the feeling of unease with just a simple change in an angle? It may sound easy, but it's much harder to pull off than most, and the fact that Kendrick was able to nail this on her first try made me understand how great this movie was about to be.
It Just Keeps Continuing And Getting Better As The Film Goes On, And Kendrick Nails It
This feeling of isolation, of this change in perspective, only gets better as the movie goes on. It's on the set of The Dating Game, it's in the way she speaks to others, it's everywhere – but most prominently, it's in that parking lot scene.
Prior to this, we see Kendrick's Sheryl and Rodney talking in a bar, and again, it's a great moment where camera angles are so well-used. But the moment he becomes threatening, the shots change—the visual impact is startling, and it makes you so nervous for her. Not that long later, after he calls her out on that fake number, through the camera, we see just how alone she is—and how threatening he has become to her.
That is such a fantastic thing to accomplish as a director. In fact, CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell had the chance to speak with Kendrick about the way some of these scenes were framed, and the director specifically said that there were plenty of "visual things" that she wanted to nail to really establish the fact that Sheryl was in danger in that parking lot:
There were certain visual things that felt important to me. I remember when I was pitching myself, I think I talked about the parking lot sequence at the end, and how I could imagine this frame where you see Sheryl and Rodney, and it's the expanse of the isolation that they're in, in that moment. And knowing that even if Sheryl ran for it, she wouldn't even make it out of the frame before Rodney was on top of her, you know? And really giving you that visceral sense of the kind of physical danger that she's in.
Yeah, she accomplishes this and more, and now I'm nervous just thinking about it.
Genuinely, I Need Anna Kendrick To Direct Way More Movies – Maybe Even More Horror
I mean this with my entire heart because I really do want Kendrick to work on way more movies. Heck, they don't even need to be horror, but she does an excellent job crafting a scene with a camera.
Truthfully, the way she frames women is something I don't really see that often in movies or TV, and it's something I'd love to see more of. In her interview with O'Connell, Kendrick spoke about how she used mirrors and lenses and so much more to show the emotions that the girl on screen was feeling, saying that it was tricky to get the shots just right but that it created some "fun performance moments:"
I spoke to (my director of photography) early on about the way that I hoped to use reflection and distortion in key moments. A woman through a camera lens, or through a mirror, or through a car window in moments when she's being really missed as a whole person. In moments where she's being looked at, but not seen. Because it's tricky to put that across in a film without using an established visual language of the way that a predator might view a woman. But if I use his literal perspective, am I contributing to a normalization of women being objectified on film? And it was just tricky. … For example, Tony Hale's character seemingly won't look at me, and will only look at me through the mirror. And I keep trying to get him to actually just look at me. I thought I created some fun performance moments.
Even watching the film, I would never have thought of that because what horror movie does that kind of deep, introspective look into the mind of how a victim feels through the eyes of a camera lens. It baffles me and makes me smile all the same.
Either way, I needed to praise Kendrick a bit. As someone who has followed her for years, from her time in the Pitch Perfect franchise to her dramatic roles to my excitement over her appearance in the upcoming A Simple Favor 2, this just made me appreciate her so much more.
Truthfully, I hope this is just the start of her directorial career. I think she has a long one ahead of her, whether it's in horror, true crime, or something else.
