'Woman of the Hour' Real-Life Story: Who Is the True Crime Movie Based On?

This story includes mentions of assault and heavy spoilers for the movie Woman of the Hour. Woman of the Hour is the latest release to continue the true-crime trend of centering victims’ stories over the killer’s or even the authorities’ investigations. The film marks Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut—and it's an impressive debut at that, as it hauntingly brings to life the stranger-than-fiction true crime story of how a serial killer went so unnoticed and his victims were so ignored that he was able to appear on the reality show The Dating Game in 1978.

The eerie, ‘70s-set thriller, which hit streaming on Netflix on October 18, 2024, primarily focuses on a fictionalized version of the woman (played by Kendrick) who appeared on a dating reality show with—and picked—a man eventually dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” (Daniel Zovatto). However, its tight hour-and-a-half runtime also illustrates the misfortunes of several women murdered by the serial killer, who was named Rodney Alcala, and how he was caught.

The serial killer movie directed by Kendrick and written by Ian McDonald was largely based on fact but features fictionalized details, so below, find a breakdown of the true story behind Woman of the Hour.

Who was Rodney Alcala from 'Women of the Hour' and was he a real serial killer?

Rodney Alcala was a real serial killer and rapist who was confirmed to have murdered seven women and girls and sexually assaulted two girls across three states throughout the ‘70s but is believed to have killed upwards of over 100. Throughout much of his killing spree, he evaded law enforcement and wasn’t convicted of much of his crimes until 2010.

According to Biography, Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor in 1943 in San Antonio, and after spending a portion of his childhood in Mexico, relocated to L.A. In Woman of the Hour, Alcala tells various details about himself to his victims before viciously assaulting and murdering them, like how he graduated from New York University, studied with filmmaker Roman Polanski, and had plans to work at a summer camp. These details were somewhat lifted from his real life. In reality, he earned a fine arts degree in 1968 from the University of California, Los Angeles and, while living under the alias John Berger, he took classes at NYU, including a class with Polanski, but did not graduate, per Biography.

The bit about summer camp is also inspired by reality. Alcala’s first victim was Tali Shapiro, an 8-year-old girl who he raped and beat with a steel bar in 1968, and although a witness saw them in a car together, police were unable to catch him and he fled the scene. He moved east after the attack and in 1971 began working at a New Hampshire summer camp as a counselor under his alias, despite being on the FBI’s Most Wanted List at the time. There, several campers recognized him, leading to his arrest. For his first offense, he pled guilty to child molestation, serving only 34 months before getting released on parole in 1974. Shortly after his release, he was caught with marijuana possession while with a 13-year-old girl and went back to prison until 1977.

Once released in 1977, he got a job at The Los Angeles Times, despite his record as a sex offender. In Woman of the Hour, he’s portrayed as working there as a photographer, although in reality, he was a typesetter. The scene in which his colleagues say police want to question him is also dramatized but inspired by real events; he was brought in as a possible Hill Side Stranger suspect, but let go, and officers didn’t realize they were speaking to another dangerous criminal.

His record went unnoticed on The Dating Game, as well. The producers didn't run a background check, so he appeared on the show in 1978 and won after displaying playful innuendos in his responses. According to PEOPLE, the charisma and conventional good looks he displayed on the show were what helped him to lure victims outside of it, in addition to him telling them that he was a professional fashion photographer.

Just one year after his appearance on The Dating Game, Alcala was arrested for the murder of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl, and he was sentenced to death in 1980. With the span of 1971 to 1979, though, he brutally raped and murdered several women across New York, Wyoming, and California—including Cornelia Michael Crilley, a flight attendant while moving into her N.Y.C. apartment, like the one depicted in Kendrick’s film (played by Kathryn Gallagher). Though Alcala appealed his conviction in 1984 and was retried in 1986, resulting in another guilty sentence, it was overturned on a technical in 2001—but within that time DNA connected him to more unsolved cases. Since then, and upon another retrial in 2010, more DNA evidence and the public release of the photographs he took have connected him to many other murders and assaults.

While he was sentenced to death, Alcala died in 2021 of natural causes at age 77 while in prison.

How was Rodney Alcala caught?

The murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach, California led to the arrest that put Alcala in prison for good. According to Biography, he abducted the girl while she was biking to ballet class and her remains were found in the Angeles National Forest days later. When a police sketch of a potential suspect was available, Alcala’s parole officer saw it and recognized his likeness, leading authorities to investigate and arrest him, after discovering earrings that belonged to Samsoe in his storage locker.

Alternatively, Woman of the Hour illustrates a teenage runaway named Amy (played by Autumn Best) as the survivor who got Alcala arrested. In reality, this character is based on the real woman Monique Hoyt, who was 15 when Alcala picked her up hitchhiking, took her photo, and raped her in 1979, according to Slate. As depicted in the film, she escaped by saying she wanted to further her relationship with Alcala and keep what had happened a secret. Ultimately, authorities did not come in time to arrest the perpetrator. Though her report helped the case against him, it wasn’t until 2010 that she was able to testify, per ABC News.

Who was Cheryl Bradshaw?

In addition to the horrific scale of Alcala’s killing spree, he also came to notoriety due to his appearance on The Dating Game, the dating show that began airing in 1965 and featured a bachelorette interviewing three anonymous bachelors behind a concealed wall. Woman of the Hour recreates the show’s midcentury set based in an L.A. studio and sees Tony Hale playing a host inspired by Jim Lang, named Ed Burke.

Kendrick also portrays a fictionalized version of Cheryl Bradshaw—spelled Sheryl in the film—the real contestant who chose Alcala as her winning date. As reported by Slate, little is known about the real Cheryl, aside from how she was described in The Dating Game: a former masseuse “with a wealth of experience,” who was also a Phoenix, Arizona-based drama teacher. The Netflix film, rather, adds to her persona by making her a struggling actress encouraged to go on the show for exposure.

Bradshaw’s interactions with the bachelors were also exaggerated in the film. The movie’s screenwriter told Netflix’s Tudum he was inspired by another episode of The Dating Game he watched for research to inform the way Sheryl goes off script. “I saw one … where there was a woman who was asking questions that were clearly combative,” McDonald said. “She was trying to pick a fight with the host, saw the show as sexist, and she really disapproved of it, and she was making that disapproval known by the questions she was asking.”

On the real episode, as Variety reports, the host introduced Alcala as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed.” Bradshaw asked him several questions, including, “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?” to which he responded, “I’m called the banana and I look good.” After she replied, “Can you be a little more descriptive?” he added, “Peel me.”

Like the film, though, Bradshaw expressed concern once she met Alcala and did not want to carry out the prize with him (passes to an amusement park and tennis lessons, as opposed to a trip to Carmel). The show’s contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger later told ABC News about how Bradshaw confided in her. “She said, ‘Ellen, I can’t go out with this guy. There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?’” Metzger recalled. “And of course, I said, ‘No.’”

Because of that, the two did not get together for drinks after filming, as they did in Woman of the Hour.

Was there really a woman in the audience on 'The Dating Game' trying to catch Rodney Alcana, like in 'Woman of the Hour?'

Woman of the Hour depicts a woman in the audience of The Dating Game (played by Nicolette Robinson) who instantly recognizes Alcala and becomes uncomfortable with his presence, remembering him to be the man who raped and murdered her friend without getting caught. As the show shoots, she gets up from her seat and attempts to talk to security about her concern, demanding she speak with a producer, but is completely ignored and ridiculed.

That did not happen in actuality, but Kendrick and McDonald inserted the fictionalized, composite character, named Laura, to represent other women who attempted to come forward and were ignored. Kendrick opened up about the thought behind this decision in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, saying, “Laura really functions as kind of a representation of all the people that tried to raise the alarm and were ignored… There are so many heroes in this story, but the heroes were outnumbered and outgunned by incompetence and negligence and a culture that did not prioritize victims.”

If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault or harassment and would like help, visit RAINN.org.