Netflix just quietly released the scariest true crime thriller of the year

The true crime thriller is hard to pin down. Embellishing the truth too much undermines the horror of what actually happened. Anyone who sticks to reality risks losing the narrative tension. But every now and then we get a true crime story that’s just fictionalized enough that when you research the true story afterwards, you’re shocked at how much of it was taken from real life. Netflix’s latest crime thriller is exactly that, but with a big twist. It’s bright, cheerful and floral, but it never lets you forget that the environment, as normal as it seems, is full of terror.

Woman of the hour is a thriller based on the real events surrounding serial killer Rodney Alcala. In between his brutal murders of dozens of victims, he appeared in The dating game. Even wilder, he won, but the impression he left on the unfortunate bachelorette was less than flattering.

Anna Kendrick, making her directorial debut with this Netflix thriller, plays Bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw. She’s a struggling actress on the verge of giving up on her dream when her auditions fail and her only friend (Pete Holmes) approaches her. In a moment when it’s all about her, she decides to take on a “role.” The dating game and delves into the pink-and-orange world of early reality TV – and the casual misogyny that came with it.

But that’s only half the story. Woman of the hour begins by following Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) and one of his victims as he poses for his camera before being attacked by him. This sets up the story of the film as a whole. Cheryl’s confrontation with danger is interrupted by those who have actually suffered Rodney’s wrath.

That’s part of the genius of this film: Cheryl doesn’t take center stage just because she was the one who made it to TV. Each of these victims is the star of their own vignette, humanizing them while providing a counterbalance to the necessary attention given to Rodney. Particularly notable is Autumn Best as Eve, a teenage runaway who meets Rodney after his death dating game Look.

The only real deviation from the truth is the game itself. Halfway through, Cheryl decides to abandon the canned questions and ask “deeper” questions like: “What is your special theory of relativity?” and “What are girls for?” It relents takes little away from the main plot, but it’s a great vehicle for Rodney to show why his cool demeanor and slightly unsettling charm are enough to gain the trust of his victims.

Cheryl doesn’t have a major heroic moment – she meets Rodney, gets spooked by him, and goes about her day. But stories like this, where women have a gut feeling for him and speak out about him only to be ignored, are the reason Acala was able to do what he did for so long. You come to this film to see Cheryl stuck with a homicidal maniac on national television, but you stay for the other women whose stories aren’t being told.

Woman of the hour is now streaming on Netflix.