The film, which Kendrick told The Independent is the “ most revealing piece of work I’ve ever done”, focuses on Rodney Alcala, who appeared on The Dating Game, a Blind Date style show, in 1978. Alcala was 35 years old when he appeared on the show and had reportedly already murdered at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a child.

In Anna Kendrick's '70s thriller, Danny Zovatto plays Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game" serial killer who hid his violence under a soft-rock sincerity.

That simply cannot be true” is the reaction many will have to the narrative centerpiece of Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, “Woman of the Hour.” And yet: On a 1978 episode of “The Dating Game,” one of the “eligible bachelors” was a serial killer in the midst of a murder spree.