Spoilers ahead for Woman of the Hour.
Anna Kendrick has had a wildly successful career on the stage and screen, and now she's adding another hyphen to her name: director. Her directorial debut Woman of the Hour is now streaming for those with a Netflix subscription, she shocks it out of the park. As a horror fan I was thrilled to see how genuinely terrifying it was, and there's one part of the Netflix movie I think other directors should learn from.
I got to see Woman of the Hour at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, a year before it finally got its release on Netflix. And on the second watch I was once again taken with how expertly Anna Kendrick built the movie's tension throughout its 94-minute runtime. And perhaps more importantly, it sticks the landing and has a wildly successful conclusion.
Woman of the Hour's critical response has been overwhelmingly positive, with plenty of journalists noting just how terrifying it is. For one, there's the device of being shown Rodney killing a number of victims. This shows as Anna Kendrick's Cheryl prepared for and films an episode of The Dating Game. And more chillingly, while she connects with the killer aka Bachelor #3, allowing for the audience to steadily worry more and more about the movie's protagonist.
And once Woman of the Hour runs of out of flashbacks, things feel even more dire. Cheryl and Rodney go out for drinks after wrapping their episode of The Dating Game, and it becomes clear that now Kendrick's character was in very real danger of being just the latest in a long list of victims from the serial killer.
After a tense, wordless exchange with a waitress refusing another round of drinks, Cheryl leaves the bar... along with Rodney. This is almost wordless parking lot pursuit plays out like the finale of any horror movie, but without any actual blood violence. Instead, the audience stays with Cheryl's POV, and feels every bit of fear as she tries to distance herself from the killer. It's a remarkable scene that leaves one breathless, and completely relieved when Anna Kendrick's character manages to make it out alive.
But Woman of the Hour isn't over there, and in fact what follows makes the ending of Kendrick's directorial debut all the more satisfying. When the audience is introduced to yet another young victim of Rodney's named Amy, it feels like a grim death sentence given what we know. Despite having no power she finds a way to manipulate Rodney and eventually escape when given the chance. So after all that pain and fear, we get a happy ending, as well a postscript that reveals what happened to each of the real-life charaters.
So many horror movies fail to have a satisfying ending, or get boring after the premise or one too many jump scares occur. And as such, I think there's a lot to be learned from Kendrick's work on the Netflix movie.
With both her performance and directorial vision for Woman of the Hour, I'm ready to elevate Anna Kendrick to full scream queen status. Give us another upcoming horror movie, please! For now, check the 2025 movie release dates.
