LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Spikeopath Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono were two cousins who were convicted of the rape, torture and murder of 10 females of various ages in LA 1977/78. This film is an interpretation of their reign of terror.Unpleasant. If you are going to do a serial killer movie, one based on real life perpetrators, then you surely have to make the characterisations of fascination value away from their despicable crimes. Unfortunately director Chuck Parello and co-writer Stephen Johnston fail to do this, leaving the film with a paucity of worthwhile human story moments. It's not helped by the fact Nicholas Torturro as Buono is badly miscast, he's just impossible to take serious in a role that calls for the ultimate seriousness.On the plus side, C. Thomas Howell as Bianchi hits the right notes. Howell is something of an undervalued actor in dark roles, as far back as 1990 where he played a vengeful killer in a film called Kid, he's been doing good moody work in thrillers. Elsewhere John Pirozzi's cinematography is on the money, keeping the murky tones of the film in harness, while Gregg Gibbs' production design has all the late 1970s requisites. 5/10

Lechuguilla Except for victim names, this true-life story of the infamous serial killings in Los Angeles in the late 1970s is mostly factual, and is told from the POV of the two killers: Kenneth Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) and Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro). As such, the film functions largely as a character study of these two criminals. The script is structured as a series of events, in chronological order, beginning with Bianchi's life in upstate New York, where he started out as a petty thief.Although he apparently tried to live a reasonably normal life, Bianchi felt constantly rejected, especially in his repeated, unsuccessful efforts to join the police force. He tells his mom: "Whatever I do, nothing ever turns out right; sometimes I just want to find some tall building and take a big fall".His hook-up with Angelo Buono in Los Angeles proves fatal. Buono, a domineering, unctuous brute who haunts the tawdry, seedy areas of LA, persuades Bianchi to go into the hooker business. But that effort backfires as a result of one particular prostitute and as a result, the two men lose their "business". Seeking "payback", they lure into their presence, and then kill, a whole series of women, mostly street hookers, as a way to "settle the score".Their murder partnership calls to mind the symbiotic relationship between Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, in the film "In Cold Blood" (1967). It was the liaison, the merger of mindsets that ultimately led to the killings.Some of the scenes in "The Hillside Strangler" are quite graphic. They are hard to watch because the victims are portrayed as real people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the Director could have spent less time showing us the nude bodies of the victims, which strikes me as gratuitous and unnecessary.Both C. Thomas Howell and Nicholas Turturro give performances that are credible. Allison Lange, as Bianchi's girlfriend in LA, provides about the only semblance of humanity in this dark story. Toward the film's end, an effort to enact a copycat killing renders an interestingly strange plot twist that presumably really happened.The entire story is very depressing and disturbing. However, visual shock value notwithstanding, the film's presentation of that story is realistic and credible. It's not for the faint of heart. And the film's story has greater breadth than depth. But as a general overview of events and of the mindset of the two criminals, "The Hillside Strangler" is certainly worth watching.

boyinflares This film turned out to be much more than I thought that it was going to be, most notably, it was extremely disturbing and at times I found myself not able to watch - particularly the rapes and deaths of the poor women. The Hillside Strangler(s) played their roles well, both utterly convincing and rather frightening. Allison Lange was fantastic as the long-suffering Claire. I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone who is faint-hearted. It was a good film, but so disturbing. There was plenty of nudity, offensive language, drug use and violence splashed throughout the movie, but the treatment of the women was so shocking. For that reason, I cannot give this film a rating.

ZootCadillac Regardless of your opinion about the validity of this and similar films the fact remains that it is an interpretation of actual events and complaining about the content of the movie and bleating about the film offending your sensibilities is the same as complaing about watching the murdering of innocent Iraqis on the news. Seldom few do it because it is pointless. These things happen and people will use different mediums to tell the story.As for the film well, I settled down to watch this and It all goes downhill from there.I am well aware of the story of these murderous cousins and was looking forward to seeing this when I spotted it. I had heard nothing about it but thought that it can't be too bad with C. Thomas Howell in it. I remember him as a decent actor.How wrong was I? This has got to be one of the worst films I have had the misfortune to see in the last decade, and trust me, I've seen some utter crap. The whole thing looked like it had had a budget spent that is equivalent to my weekly beer budget. Made on a shoestring with a bunch of amateur actors ( loose term ) I can't believe Howell joined this movie let alone finished it. Even his acting was dire having been dragged down to the level of the rest. I have seen better made 1970's porn flicks that contained better dialogue and storyline than this tripe.I pride myself upon watching ( or reading ) anything I start right to the end. I considered stopping this at least three times and then when I least expected it it suddenly ended. However I was glad of that. Avoid at all cost.