Review of The Hillside Strangler
Year: 2004 Reviewer: Chris Docker
The tagline ‘reprise of the video nasty' was inspired by the comments of Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF ) Artistic Director Shane Danielsen when introducing its world premiere. The Director Chuck Parello said that in previous serial killer movies the killer was often likeable or funny or sexy, so he had to show the creepy, nasty side and make the audience hate him. The killings are graphic. The lighting is always such as to show off the stripped women's breasts. If it were a good film that might simply be part and parcel of the genre, but Hillside Strangler is a poor film with an absence of tension or skill. It has the quality of a soft porn movie shown on late night tv, where the only incentive that can be offered to the audience to keep watching is the next gratuitous display of flesh. If it were part of a horror film festival (say Edinburgh's ‘Dead by Dawn') I would perhaps feel more charitable towards it - presented in that manner it would be part of a gore fest that accepts such trashiness as part of the fun. That it is included as part of the EIFF raises other questions. If EIFF defends its choice for inclusion on the grounds that it wants to greatest possible diversity, I would like to have seen it advertised as a video nasty style movie.
Rating: 6/10
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