Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Chris Fisher

Writers:

Chris Fisher (written by)
Aaron Pope (written by)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Los Angeles, 1978. Sex, Drugs, Serial Killers.

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Hooker | Random Sex | Gurney | SWAT Team | Kitchen Scene

Cast

Joleigh Fioravanti	...	Tanya (as Joleigh Pulsonetti)
Bret Roberts	...	Jack
Brittany Daniel	...	Samantha Stone
Joseph McKelheer	...	Joe
Vanessa Nigro	...	Sally
Channon Roe	...	Dave
Valerie Stodghill	...	Melanie
Tomas Arana	...	Angelo Buono
Clifton Collins Jr.	...	Kenneth Bianchi
Rhino Michaels	...	Watch Commander
Lake Bell	...	Jillian Dunne
Tom Wright	...	Detective Bryant
Mike Hagerty	...	Detective Smith
Eddie Jemison	...	Kantor
Stephen R. Hudis	...	Swat Captain

Also Known As:

The Hillside Strangler (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence/grisly images, sexuality/nudity, drug use and language.

Runtime:

USA:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:MA | New Zealand:R18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Valencia, California, USA

Company:

Nightstalker LLC

Trivia:

Shot in only 15 days.

Utterly uninvolving

What a way to botch a movie. This crew had the money and the know-how, but still they managed to ruin what could have been an OK movie.

The problem is that the story is told from the perspective of the psychiatrist, played by Brittany Daniel. Now they story is supposed to be about a serial killer. The title is quite misleading, as if the movie were about the murders. It's not. They show one kidnapping and murder. From then on it's all about the psychiatrist. What does she do? Interview, meet with, and hypnotize a suspect. So we get 3 or 4 extended boring sequences of that. And they are not particularly interesting at all. The villain here is not one bit scary, menacing, or of interest, although well-performed by Clifton Collins Jr.

Any other movie would have told this story from the perspective of the killers and cops, which would be more fun to watch. What makes the psychiatrist at all noteworthy is that Daniel is pretty and lives with a drug user/dealer who spends his time partaking in drug and sex orgies. She's gets also involved. And those are the only watchable moments in this movie.

There are some short scenes of cops raiding suspects homes, but nothing to get one's attention. Daniel has a friend DA who is running the case. This is rather politically correct anachronistic non-sense. How many young women were at the DA's office in LA in the 70s? Another problem, this person is played by Lake Bell, who is utterly incompetent at re-recording her own voice track. Perhaps because she barely moves her lips when she speaks, but it looks like a foreign-dubbed movie. And her character is not likable or watchable.

On top of that, sometime after 30 minutes, the movie makes clear what is going on with the suspects and who did what and why. So for 55 minutes we have to wait for the movie to work out what we already know is going on- again, this happens through conversations, not even flashbacks.

Another absurd thing is that there are 4 or so scenes where things are censored- blurred- as if we were watching a TV-cut of an R-rated movie. One rarely sees that and it's ridiculous. This is, thankfully, a hard-R-rated movie and they blurred some sex-scenes and drug paraphernalia! One has to wonder what went on in people's mind's as they were editing this thing.

Finally, another non-sensical thing is how this movie is filmed: in constant motion, with the camera circling and rotating, and going in circles at all times- all times. The camera is never still. This is fine for the credits and perhaps during the drug/madness moments. But it becomes nauseating and silly after a while. Again, there's a time for everything but non-stop revolving camera movements are just annoying.

The only reasons to watch this movie are Brittany Daniel and Joleigh Fioreavanti, who starts off the movie beautifully. There's some good acting, too. But otherwise, the movie fails miserably in direction, story-telling, camera-work.