Anna Kendrick tells the horrifying true story of a serial killer who appeared on a dating show in the “Woman of the Hour” trailer

“Woman of the Hour,” inspired by the true story of 1970s serial killer Rodney Alcala, begins streaming on Netflix on October 18

Anna Kendrick steps behind the camera for her new thriller.

On Tuesday, October 1st, Netflix released a new trailer for Woman of the hourKendrick’s directorial debut, in which she also plays a woman appearing on the 60s and 70s game show The dating game – and then meets a serial killer in the middle of his infamous killing spree.

An official logline for the film describes the film as a “strange story about an aspiring actress in 1970s Los Angeles and a serial killer in the middle of a years-long murder spree, whose lives intersect when they are cast in an episode.” The dating game.”

Related: Anna Kendrick Admits She Can’t Cook: She ‘Can’t Do Anything Useful in Life’ (Exclusive)

The film is inspired by the story of Rodney Alcala, a real-life serial killer in the 1970s. In addition to Kendrick in the lead role and in the director’s chair, the film also stars Tony Hale, Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Pete Holmes, Autumn Best, Kathryn Gallagher and Kelley Jakle.

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Kendrick’s first film as a director premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Although the star and director were unable to attend this festival in 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, she said so in a statement shared at the time Woman of the hour is the “proudest moment of my career.”

Related: How a serial killer and rapist ended up on ‘The Dating Game’ — and was chosen by the woman

“I am grateful to every single person who put their energy into making this film,” she said at the time. “And I’m so excited for an audience to see their hard work on the big screen.”

Kendrick recently told us Weekly entertainment that she originally planned to star in and produce the new film, and ended up stepping in as director when the film finally found a production start date, but had “no director.”

“And of course I sit there for the whole two years and think, ‘Well, if it were like that.’ My Film, that’s how I would do it. But it’s not, so it’s not my decision,” she said EW. “I was just so excited by the idea of ​​taking this script that I loved so much and making it the way I saw it.”

Woman of the hour begins streaming on Netflix on October 18th.

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