SYNOPSICS
Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) is a English movie. Chris Fisher has directed this movie. Joleigh Fiore,Bret Roberts,Brittany Daniel,Joseph McKelheer are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2006. Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) is considered one of the best Crime,Drama,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
The notorious case of the Hillside Strangler is the basis for this startling thriller directed primarily with an over-used hand-held camera by Chris Fisher. Kenneth Bianchi, one (along with his cousin Angelo Buono) of the two serial rapists and killers who terrorized the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s, is giving police station interviews to psychiatrist Samantha Stone who has disquieting lifestyle issues of her own. It falls to her to delve into the details of the case to determine the veracity of Bianchi's claims of multiple personality disorder, but in so doing, she is forced to relive the horrific crimes, one of which occurs at her very doorstep.
Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) Trailers
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Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) Reviews
An exercise in total incompetence
Do you have any idea how wretched a film has to be for me to consider it the worst "true" serial killer-themed movie ever? Well, this one gets that honor. How it was humanly possible to make a movie worse than SPECK boggles my mind. But this crew did. Oh wait, I know why: 1. Here's a movie whose title suggests it will only appeal to true crime buffs. So let's alienate the only possible fan base this movie could have by changing EVERYTHING factual about the case. Nevermind the fact that the real Ken Bianchi was a slick BS artist. Nope, this movie turns him into Kevin Spacey from THE USUAL SUSPECTS. And what's with that title, you ask? Weren't there two Hillside Stranglers? Yes. Yes, there were. But Angelo Buono is a minor character in this piece. Forget the fact that he was the actual brains behind the crimes and was in effect Ken's mentor in murder. Angelo gets one brief scene and then falls off the face of the earth. Interestingly, Angelo's criminal trial was the longest in United States history up to that point. Do they even see fit to give us little slices of information like that in the closing credits? Nah. Because research is hard. 2. There's this wonderful new invention out there called a tripod. It allows a camera to be placed in a fixed position for a steady, undistracting shot. Our cinematographer hasn't heard of this invention. Therefore, he shoots every scene in a circular dolly shot. No, seriously. EVERY scene. Sometimes to break the monotony of the circular dolly shots, we get a circular dolly shot superimposed onto ANOTHER circular dolly shot. Yay. 3. Our psychiatrist Samantha is such a model of professionalism that she keeps candid nude pictures of herself hanging on the wall in her study. I guess this is to provide a conversation piece to visiting patients and law enforcement personnel. She's also apparently so absorbed in her casework that she can never seem to fasten the top 6 or 7 buttons on her blouse. It's impossible to give a tinker's squat about Samantha because her only character development consists of her having increasingly half-hearted sex with a parade of drugged-out strangers. 4. When the story lags, cut to another drug-fueled orgy! Not that you'll be able to see much, because for these sequences they seem to have strapped a camera onto a hummingbird. A hummingbird with a penchant for annoyingly long dissolves. And because recutting a film to meet an R-rating costs money, let's just digitally fog certain props and naked characters that the MPAA finds offensive. Ah, digital fogging. It's not just for Japanese pornos anymore! Classy. In conclusion, this movie fails as a serial killer biopic. It fails as a character study. It fails as a procedural. It fails as a horror film. It fails as a suspense film. But if you look at it as an Impassioned Plea for Tolerance and Acceptance of the Circular Dolly Shot, you'll find no better example.
The good performances just can't bring this movie up to snuff.
"Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders" could've been so much better. The plot is: Dr. Samantha Stone (Brittany Daniel) gets a case that involves accused murderer Kennenth Bianchi (Clifton Collins Jr.) She gets into his head, and eventually he does the same to her. The main problem with the film is that there too many camera and sound tricks. It's very distracting and headache inducing. The camera goes around in circles every two seconds. What's good about this film is the performances. Clifton Collins Jr. is great as Kenneth. If you watch his other performances in "187" or "Mindhunters", you can see the immense talent he has. Brittany Daniel does a decent job. Yes, she takes off her clothes, but she has acting ability. In the end: This movie is a misfire, but thankfully it does boast two good main performances, without that, it would have been a disaster. For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
unbelievable waste of time and talent
After seeing that a film of the tag team killers of B & B was now released, I was hopeful that someone had made use of this fertile crime history, and Bianchi's lame MPD defense could have been interesting if made by someone who HAD A MODICUM OF TALENT...and had a real script..I was just stunned at how far dramatic license could be utilized...and still use "actual" names with no actual history to back it up. This is the WORST serial killer flick ever, and possibly a contender for worst film ever. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Hillside case, except that we see the comical appearance of the multiple personalities of Bianchi in the last 15 minutes(permanently damaging the career of this young guy that was in "Traffic"). In the end, the flick is a failing grade at a CC Film School. I don't know much about the "writer/director", but it really makes you wonder how anyone, with just a MiniDV handicam and a loosely written script gets "known" actors to appear in this horrible mess. I felt the pain of these actors (especially Lake Bell, she's fine!) throughout...and the cute blonde from "Joe Dirt" was forced to chain smoke and go bra-less throughout, for what reason ??? Not even that can keep any interest up after the first 5 minutes. This is nothing more than a failed, male sex/murder fantasy, and is the most amateurish film that I've seen in release possibly ever...it should be burned, the MiniDV master should be burned !! Take some Dramamine before you TRY to watch it, it makes the Blair Witch camera work look like Lawrence OF Arabia. Most amateur porn flix have higher production values than this one. Stop making movies Herr Director, even if your daddy owns a studio...
A couple nice performances but totally worthless story
As a Hillside Strangler buff I decided to buy this DVD ($5 at Blockbuster). I was blown away by the inaccuracies of the story, to the point of fraudulence. This is not really the Hillside case at all. The time-line is completely off (events happen waaay out of sequence to real life), and the Brittany Daniel (main) character is at best an amalgamation of a number of characters, and at worst a complete fabrication (not a good sign in a fact based movie when the lead character never existed!). And oddly, the story is told from her point of view, with an odd story-line about coke deals and sex parties. If I had a nickel for every movie with a lesbian criminal psychiatrist who looks like a model, does coke, throws sex parties at her home in the Hollywood Hills and does interrogations with her top open... But worst of all, the movie fails to capture the essence of the story (one of the most bizarre and interesting cases ever, from beginning to end), what made the killers "tick" and worst of all disregards the victims by basically phasing them out of the narrative. On top of that, the film-making is amateurish (you'll need to down a bottle of Dramamine due to the camera that NEVER STOPS SWIRLING AROUND) and unsteady. On the plus side, the performances by Clifton Collins, Jr. and Brittany Daniel are good. Though she isn't given much material to work with (many of her scenes involve her "thinking" aka staring off into space), she is sometimes engaging and always nice to look at. If you're really interested in Hillside, the best movie on it is The Case of the Hillside Stranglers, the 1989 made for TV flick with Richard Crenna, Dennis Farina & Billy Zane -Zane's performance in particular nails the Bianchi character much better than Rampage, and Crenna and Farina are excellent as well. The story also has more to do with the victims, and also with the toll the case took on the cops involved. Of course, that movie doesn't have long nude scenes w/ Brittany Daniel, so you'll have to choose.
Trying a little... maybe way too hard....
When I first saw this movie was going to be coming out, I was in great spirits. Clifton Collins Jr has already established himself as one of the fine young actors in Hollywood. On top of that, with his appearance and previous performances, being a psychotic killer would not be too hard for him. Anyway, I thought this was going to be a sweet film, until I saw the co-stars and the failed man who made the film. Brittany Daniel is really hot, but to put in a lady that has worked with David Spade before.. come on. Plus, All the movies Winter has made, have failed. This is not to mention that they have also been about prior serial killer tales. So not only is he using a made story, he does not handle that easy access well. The camera work was actually well done, until I realized after about five minutes that it was always going to be the one circular motion camera around the set. As the movie went on, I couldn't tell if I was getting a headache from the horrible supporters, or if it was the camera-work making me dizzy. Either way, a not so solid 6 is what I gave, just for the sake of Collins because he played his part spectacular as usual, but he really needs to start working with bigger(better) people to get somewhere.