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The Hillside Strangler

2004, Movie, R, 85 mins

The Hillside Strangler: Review

HILLSIDE STRANGLER, THE
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Director Chuck Parello and his cowriter, Stephen Johnston, who collaborated on 2000's sober ED GEIN (2000), about the '50s Wisconsin necrophile whose bizarre exploits inspired PSYCHO (1960) and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), return to the scene of the crime. But this time, the crimes take place in 1977, when the notorious Hillside Strangler rampage terrorized Los Angeles and left 10 women dead. Two more victims died in Bellingham, Wash., in 1979, leading to the revelation that there was not one Hillside Strangler, but two — cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono. Though Johnston and Parello change the names of the victims, they hew extremely close to the facts of this singularly unpleasant case. The story begins in Rochester, New York, as security guard Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) receives a letter of rejection from the Rochester police force. Encouraged by his mother, he decides to make a fresh start in Los Angeles and moves in with his older cousin, Buono (Nicholas Turturro). Buono, who runs a custom car-upholstering business from his bachelor dive, complete with sleazy mirrored walls and in-house porn collection, introduces Bianchi to L.A.'s seamy underside. Bianchi tries again to join the police force, and is again rejected. In between working a legitimate but boring job doing title searches, using bogus credentials to set himself up as a therapist and wooing unsuspecting neighbor Claire (Allison Lange), Bianchi joins his cousin in an escalating crime spree that starts with forcing naive girls into prostitution and ends in a frenzy of rape, torture and murder. Parello's deadpan re-creation of the stranglers' repellent war on women is all the more chilling for being so matter-of-fact, and cinematographer John Pirozzi flawlessly evokes the grit-and-grime look of low-budget '70s crime films. Turturro — actor John Turturro's younger brother — has honed his skill at playing thuggish creeps over the course of several films, but '80s teen-heartthrob Howell was a less obvious — and hugely effective — choice to play the oily Bianchi, a slippery, self-justifying tangle of insecurity, festering resentment, recklessness and latent sadism. Character actress Lin Shaye, usually relegated to grotesque supporting roles in mainstream comedies, is a revelation as Buono's embittered, cancer-ridden mother. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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