Monstrously misogynistic, The Hillside Strangler puts the 'nasty' into video nasty. Based on infamous real-life serial killer cousins Kenneth Bianchi (C Thomas Howell) and Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro), it's a murky trip into psychosis and sexual violence from director Chuck Parello (Ed Gein, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer 2) and co-writer Stephen Johnston (Bundy). Playing its extreme catalogue of graphic rape, sodomy, murder and necrophilia for sleazy yuck-yuck-yucks, this is a deeply disturbing film.
Sleaze sums up The Hillside Strangler. Arriving in the oversexed, sun-kissed world of 70s California - where movie theatres show crossover porn films like Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones - social no-hoper Bianchi teams up with his ladies man cousin Buono and sets off on a 14-month orgy of rape and murder. Flitting from hardcore sex to hardcore sexual violence, the pair make a chillingly odd couple fuelled by their shared insatiable hatred of women.
"AS ENJOYABLE AS HAVING YOUR SOUL SUCKED OUT THROUGH YOUR EYEBALLS"
Fully prepared to get down and dirty for his art, Parello comes not to judge these men but to record their easy transformation from horny johns into vicious tandem serial killers. He treats them as clowns: Howell's wild flights of fantasy (one minute he wants to be a cop, the next he's committing necrophilia) are played for laughs, while Turturro's slimy pick up lines are preposterously effective.
The real-life Strangler case is appallingly fascinating (the film barely touches on its most bizarre twist - in which a female copycat fan committed a bungled murder in an attempt to get Bianchi off the hook). In contrast, this fictional retelling is simply fascinated by the sleaze as Parello lingers over the objectified bodies of his (largely naked) female cast members as they're beaten, raped and murdered, then laughs it up with his bozo anti-heroes as they congratulate themselves on a job well done. Watching it is about as enjoyable as having your soul sucked out through your eyeballs.
The Hillside Strangler (2004)
