Christina Hornisher’s long-forgotten 1973 serial killer film ‘Hollywood 90028’ finally gets the recognition it deserves in a new 4K restoration at the Coolidge and Alamo Drafthouse.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

A serial killer haunts the hills of Hollywood in the surprisingly atmospheric and polished 1973 exploitation film “Hollywood 90028,” aka “The Hollywood Hillside Strangler” and “Twisted Throats.” Perhaps even more haunting is why writer-director Christina Hornisher, who died in 2003, never directed another film. “Hollywood 90028” has been praised by the likes of “The First Omen” director Arkasha Stevenson, has been received with open arms at recent film festivals (it is sold out at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema), and has been given a 4K restoration by Grindhouse Releasing. Boston genre-film buffs can see this once obscure, newly rediscovered entry for themselves at the Coolidge Corner at midnight screenings this Friday and Saturday and at the Alamo Drafthouse Seaport for a week, beginning June 14. As others have observed, the film is a time capsule of 1970s Los Angeles and an eerie hybrid of art film and 1970s grindhouse effort.

A couple of years after “Dirty Harry” (1971) introduced us to the tenderloin district of San Francisco, Hornisher sets much of her action amidst the “nudie” clubs of downtown L.A. The film’s protagonist is a struggling cameraman named Mark (Christopher Augustine)—shades of Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” (1960)—who tools around the mean streets of L.A. in a crudely customized VW Beetle convertible. When Mark, who has artistic pretensions, isn’t shooting nudie films for a brutish producer Jobal (Dick Glass), he’s fighting none-too-successfully the compulsion to pick up stray young women, who are easy to spot in the film capital of the world and strangle them to death.

A scene from "Hollywood 90028," directed by Christina Hornisher.
A scene from “Hollywood 90028,” directed by Christina Hornisher. (Grindhouse Releasing)

Is it any wonder that playing at L.A. theaters are such titles as “Kill Them All” and the Roger Corman classic “Bloody Mama” (1970), featuring Shelley Winters in the title role and a young actor named Robert De Niro as her dope fiend son? Incredibly, “Hollywood 90028” turns into a twisted love story after Mark, who enjoys observing apex predators at the Los Angeles Zoo, meets a nudie actress named Michelle (Jeanette Dilger, an uncredited extra in “American Graffiti”). Mark takes her on one of their dates to the famed Hollywood sign on Mount Lee, one of L.A.’s most iconic tourist attractions.

While I can’t make any great claims concerning the quality of the acting, “Hollywood 90028” is very well shot. Half the time, L.A. resembles a dreary 1970s fleshpot; the other half is like a depopulated, post-nuke, dystopian landscape. Hornisher is notably partial to artistic compositions.

While disturbing, the violence in the film is not extreme. The nudity is also not as gratuitous as it was in many 1970s exploitation films. Yes, those nervous strings are courtesy of composer Basil Poledouris (“Conan the Barbarian”). As many have pointed out, “Hollywood 90028” boasts one of the most incredible final shots ever. It sums up everything that precedes it like some insane, grotesquely cinematic (in more ways than one) haiku. That shot should have become Hornisher’s calling card, opening doors for her. Instead, she just faded away. She subsequently wrote a 1980 short “Sister of the Bride” and was the associate producer of the 1987 TV movie “J. Edgar Hoover” with Treat Williams. Among other things, “Hollywood 90028” is a meaningful tale of what should have been.

‘Hollywood 90028’

Rating: R for violence, nudity, sexually suggestive scenes, and profanity.

Cast: Christopher Augustine, Jeanette Dilger, Dick Glass

Director: Christina Hornisher

Writer: Hornisher

Running time: 87 minutes

Where to Watch: Coolidge Corner, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport

Grade: B+