‘Woman of the Hour’ tells the harrowing true story of a game show-winning serial killer
Anna Kendrick is set to direct and star in Netflix’s new crime thriller, Woman of the Hour. The film’s eerie and tense first teaser is bound to leave viewers questioning if it’s based on a true story.
Woman of the Hour’s teaser sees Kendrick’s character, Cheryl Bradshaw, on a date with a man. However, the man’s behavior grows exceedingly unsettling, such as how his expression darkens when she laughs at something he says and his strange inquiries into how she’s feeling. When she tries to leave the bar, the man continues pestering her for a number, ignoring her numerous attempts to evade the question. Eventually, Bradshaw simply starts walking away, but the man quickly begins following her from a distance. It’s a chill-inducing trailer as Kendrick realistically conveys her character’s fear as every woman’s worst nightmare slowly begins playing out on screen.
If the trailer felt highly realistic to viewers, it may be because the movie is inspired by actual events.
The true story behind Woman of the Hour
Woman of the Hour is based on the true story of Cheryl Bradshaw and Rodney Alcala. Alcala is a notorious serial killer who was ultimately convicted of seven murders, although investigators believe his true number of victims could be as high as 130.
The same year Alcala graduated from UCLA’s School of Fine Art, he committed his first known crime. Alcala’s first victim was an eight-year-old child, Tali Shapiro, who he kidnapped in 1968 while she was walking to school. Fortunately, someone witnessed the kidnapping and contacted the police, who kicked down the door to Alcala’s apartment and found Shapiro unconscious. She had been sexually assaulted and nearly beaten to death. Alcala managed to escape the scene and went on the run for three years before being arrested in 1971. However, he was able to get off with a plea deal under an “indeterminate sentencing” program.
He was paroled after 34 months, although he quickly broke his parole and served an additional two years before being paroled again in 1977. Upon his second release, he went on a murder rampage. Between 1977 and 1979, he brutally sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered five women and girls ranging in age from 12 – 33. He was finally arrested after the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe due to having been spotted photographing the young girl before her death and being found with her possessions. Soon, DNA testing linked him to several other murders. However, when he was arrested, police discovered a storage locker he rented in Seattle, which contained hundreds of photos of women and girls.
Although police eventually released some of the photos to the public for help identifying them, many of the women in the photos remain unidentified to this day, with some believing they could be Alcala’s additional victims.
Who is Cheryl Bradshaw?
As mentioned above, Kendrick’s Bradshaw in Woman of the Hour is a real person. She was not one of Alcala’s victims, but she very easily could have been one. After all, in 1978, she and Alcala came face-to-face on The Dating Game. The Dating Game was a game show that attempted to set up bachelors and bachelorettes. Typically, episodes would feature one bachelorette and three bachelors. The bachelors would be hidden from view while the bachelorette asked them questions. At the end of the game, she would select the bachelor who impressed her the most. The winner got to go on a date with the bachelorette, paid for by the show.
In 1978, Alcala was in the middle of his rampage and had been convicted of child molestation in Shapiro’s case. However, The Dating Game didn’t utilize background checks or databases to vet their contestants. No one knew Alcala’s criminal history when he auditioned for the show and was approved to compete. Contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger chose him because he was handsome, although her future husband, executive producer Mike Metzger, noted that he got bad vibes from Alcala. Alcala’s fellow contestants would later also speak out about being so creeped out by him they couldn’t stand even being near him for the show. Still, Alcala ended up on the show and convinced the episode’s bachelorette, Bradshaw, to pick him.
In hindsight, his answers to her questions were pretty creepy and strange, such as saying he wanted to be called a banana and telling Bradshaw, “Peel me.” However, at the time, those were the raunchy, entertaining answers the show sought. It seemed Alcala knew exactly how the show worked and how to win it, as he boasted to his fellow contestants, “I always get my girl.” Despite being charmed by Alcala initially, Bradshaw came to regret her decision. Eventually, she called Ellen Metzger, telling her she got “weird vibes” from him. She ultimately refused to go on a date with him, even though they would’ve been chaperoned.
Not much is known about Bradshaw, who was a drama teacher when she appeared on The Dating Game. She was quite taken with Acala during the show and had planned to go on a date with him to play tennis. However, after speaking to him briefly in person, she was struck with a gut feeling that something was wrong. In a rare interview with Sydney Telegraph in 2012, Bradshaw stated that she actually started “feeling ill” due to how creepy Alcala was and realized she couldn’t go on a date with him. Her intuition very likely saved her life.
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