Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

We see far too many women killed in this movie, but this was the world of the notorious Bianchi brothers (the hillside strangler duo) who lured lone women into their car, and killed them, leaving them on a hilltop, like you briefly see in the thriller, Copycat. At times, even I found this one pretty hard at watch. The performances are equally impressive, if at times, frightening. I loved what Howell did here as the exceptionally pathetic loser, Kenneth Bianchi, obsessed with being a cop, though he kept failing the exam. He was truly creepy and believable. This is his best performance since The Hitcher. Kenneth fell in love with a beautiful woman, while running his fake psychiatric practice. Then the out call brothel service, began, where twisted soul, Howell and Turturro, (effectively powerful AND scary as the more dominant and violent brother, Angelo) lured these innocent girls over from interstate at the promise of a big modelling future. When arriving they soon discover their fate as prostitutes, forced to have sex with dirty old men, the first customer so eager to drop his drawers. At times I really found Angelo intolerable, if detestable, where he could suddenly snap into a rage, just like that. The evil duo later take care of this madam situation, where this Latino lass I think, was scr..ing them over. Her murder was unnerving moment, among some others. Kenneth at first, we see is living with his mother. He then flies to L.A to live with his brother, where we meet the Aunt, Jenny, a pathetic middle aged type, a regular object of intimidation and abuse by Angelo. Another deeply disturbing seen comes in the later part of the movie, with Kenneth, now alienated by his brother, strangling and raping another girl in his apartment. I guess he just got bored and couldn't stand the loneliness. This was probably the most unbearable scene in the whole movie, which almost had me turning off. We almost think he's been caught too, when the cops make a visit, but it's over something else. Another pretty intense scene, was a domestic between Howell and girlfriend, that ended with him sobbing pathetically, just like he did at Mommy's, before falling into Mom's lap. Eventually the two were brought in and brought to trial. No more bizarre was a fan letter to Kenneth by a female psychotic, once a patient at his fake practice, thanking him, where she had killed Bianchi's woman, though I don't know if that part is a hundred percent authentic, considering the latter. Too, was great, Howell's creepy smile, while reading these letters. As in a wave of real serial killer movies, being dished out, this one demands attention, not just for it's insight, but a lot of thanks goes to the very good performances of it's leads, but some of this is pretty hard to watch. Be warned.

The Hillsiade Strangler starts as store detective & wannabe police officer Kenneth Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) decides to leave New York, fly to Los Angeles & stay with his cousin Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro). There Kenneth applies to be a cop but is rejected so together with Angelo he kidnaps two young girls Erin (Jennifer Tisdale) & April (Jessica Allegra) & force them into prostitution, all goes well until a local pimp & his heavies come round & put a premature end to the cousins nice little earner. Frustrated & angry Kenneth & Angelo cruise around & pick up a prostitute named Gabrielle (Kent Masters King) who told the pimp about them & murder her, both men enjoyed it & are soon addicted to posing as police officers, kidnapping, raping, abusing & murdering women. In the press they are dubbed as 'The Hillside Strangler'...Co-written & directed by Chuck Parello this is one in a number of films to portray real life serial killers over the past few years including Summer of Sam (1999) about the Son of Sam killings in New York, In the Light of the Moon (2000) about Ed Gein also directed by Parello, Dahmer (2002) about Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy (2002) unsurprisingly about Ted Bundy, Nightstalker (2002) about Los Angeles serial killer Richard Ramirez, Gacy (2003) about John Wayne Gacy, Monster (2003) which profiles female serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) about Ed Gein & The Zodiac (2005) & Zodiac (2007) which were both about the San Francisco bay killer of the same name. It seems that films about real life serial killers are all the rage, God knows why since how many of those films I have listed are actually any good? Well The Hillside Strangler certainly doesn't buck the trend as I think it's a piece of crap to be quite frank. The scripts plays it from the point of view of the two lead psychos, a lot of the original details of the case are retained although anyone not familiar with those details will not notice anyway, however there are a few things that the makers have changed like how the two girls forced into prostitution escape but I don't think it particularly matters. I'm not really sure who would enjoy a film such as The Hillside Strangler, the constant profanity & bad language really becomes annoying & distracting, the scenes in which the two cousins abduct, rape & kill their victims are very unpleasant to watch & to be honest the film bored me. At almost 100 minutes I found this very hard to sit through, the constant profanity gets irritating & since the entire duration of the film is spent following these two highly unlikable scumbags around it's difficult to find any sort of enjoyment here.The film is nowhere near as graphic as it would like you to believe, there is nudity but all the rapes occur off screen, the murders are relatively tame & don't feature any blood or gore & I think the reason why The Hillside Strangler is disturbing is because it's based on actual events which all decent human beings will find reprehensible. In reality between November 1977 & May 1978 the two cousins murdered 10 women, the two split up in 1978 & Bianchi then killed two girls on his own & was arrested soon after which Buono was implicated in the earlier killings & both were sentenced to life in prison in 1983. That six year period is what the film actually concentrates on as well as a bizarre real life incident about a female writer who Bianchi convinced to commit another murder in the style of the Hillside Strangler to try & make police think they had the wrong person in jail. In another bizarre fact the two actually stopped Catherine Lorre with the intent on abducting, raping & killing her but let her go after they found out she was the daughter of horror acting icon Peter Lorre! The film isn't scary & much of it's shock value comes from the fact it's based on true events rather than it's graphic content of which there is actually very little.Technically the film is solid, it doesn't really have a late 70's feel about it, I can't quite put my finger on why but I just don't think it did. The acting is alright, both C. Thomas Howell (looking like a cross between Ernest & Jim Carrey) & Nicholas Turturro (looking like a fat Raul Julia) make their character's very unlikable so I suppose they did what was required. No-one else is given much to do.The Hillside Strangler takes a notorious late 70's Los Angeles murder case & tries to make a character driven film out of it, personally there is next to nothing that I found enjoyable about The Hillside Strangler & should filmmakers really give scum like Bianchi & Buono more publicity & almost turn them into some sort of anti-hero? As far as I am concerned they should rot in jail in total obscurity. The film Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) also focused on the crimes of Bianchi & Buono.

I made the wrong decision, when i saw this Disgusting movie. I am surprised some people have given this film good reviews. It was completely Out of this world and shockingly Nasty. I have never seen such a unpleasant movie before. I thought Clockwork Orange was Disturbingly nasty, this one goes 10 steps ahead. The movie focuses on 2 cousins who kidnap, torture and rape their victim again and again. If the director wanted to make a movie based on real life incidents like the hillside stranglers. Why did he make it from their point of view, He should of made it from the Polices point of view. This movie is the most shockingly disturbing film I've ever seen. It should of been banned instantly, Cant believe i had to see this crap. Not recommended at all, I know some people like a challenge of a movie, but this one is not worth a look.

Well, I have NOT seen this film. Reading about it and seeing the trailer, WHY would I want to? Did you see this Brit guy's comments on it? "Mint"? Who is this made for? The sexual sadist murderer in all of us? While it is open to argument whether the "depiction of real-life events" is ever helpful in preventing the behavior in the future(ala Schindler's List), this is obviously pure exploitation. Indeed, I agree with one comment that the people involved with this production should be ashamed. To put out a 100% stupid comedy or melodrama is one thing. So it makes money and entertains someone somewhere. But this? To make money off those murders? To "entertain" vicariously through murderers? THE goofiest comedy ever might give someone a laugh. HOW does THIS enliven anyone's life in the least? There is no place for this kind of production to hide behind, no artistic or business justification. Only for it to return to the rock from which it crawled out from under(no offense intended to small crawling things that live under rocks), just like the scum murderers it depicts.