Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

From time to time I will rent a movie that isn't too good. It's usually no big deal, since the dime-a-dozen films I watch usually have some entertaining moments. However, the film Hillside Strangler (2004) is in a different class altogether. This film gave me nightmares!

Hillside Strangler is about the well-know "Hillside Strangler" crime spree that mesmerized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. I recently read a decent book about the occurrence and thought the movie may be interesting too.

In the case, ten young women were abducted and left dead along highways or on neighborhood streets. Then the killings abruptly stopped, and the police detectives began to slowly piece together evidence to solve the mystery.

The plot of this film focuses on the two "Hillside Strangler" killers: Ken Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) and Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro). The film starts by portraying Bianchi living with his mother in New York, where he was not getting anywhere in life. She encourages him to move-out to California with his cousin Angelo Buono.

Once in California Bianchi mooches off his cousin for a while, but eventually settles down to some extent and finds a job. In the meantime, he and Bruno get together and fantasize about attracting woman and running a call-girl service. Buono has extremely crude views about women, but somehow manages to attract them quite easily.

The two of them soon start abducting woman randomly, raping them, and then inexplicably killing them. As the film progresses it's obvious they are getting some kind of thrill from fooling the police and terrorizing the whole city.

While I've seen films depicting crimes and violence, Hillside Strangler focuses so extensively on the horrific violence that Bianchi and Buono carried out it almost made me sick. There are scenes that go on for several minutes (Why did I keep watching?) showing women being brutalized then slowly strangled. In one scene I thought they were actually killing someone on screen!

Another problem with the plot is that it rarely pulls back so the viewer can see the bigger picture. Almost all the focus is on the two main characters (both repulsive people) and there is little explanation for why their behavior spiraled out of control, or how the greater public was reacting to their crime spree.

On a bright note, the acting by Nicholas Turturro (as Angelo Buono) and C. Thomas Howell (as Ken Bianchi) was not bad. Each of them captured the distinct personality of the real-life person; Bianchi was decent looking, approachable, but not very industrious. On the other hand Bruno was a self-employed hedonistic creep, who was completely obsessed with sex and the domination of others.

There were quite a few pretty women in the film, but none of their names were familiar to me. For the most part they make a brief debut, quickly appear nude with the two killers, then end up as a corpse.

If you are looking for a mystery or police detective movie, do not choose Hillside Strangler. This is a low-class production, strung together and quickly edited for fast DVD distribution to unsuspecting customers.

The film's content was very disturbing and it gave me the nightmares thinking there are real-life people like the "Hillside Stranglers" preying on unsuspecting victims. The only consolation to the film is that one of the real-life killers is imprisoned for life, and the other is dead.

Rating: R for Nudity, Violence, Sexuality, and Language.
Running Time: 96 Minutes

Other review that may interest you
Darcy O'Brien's book:''The Hillside Stranglers''

http://www.epinions.com/content_242697539204

© trailhound. 2006.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age