Christina Hornisher's Warning to Women: L.A. as Civilizational Black Hole in Hollywood 90028
Finished in 1971 but not exhibited theatrically until 1974, writer-producer-director Christina Hornisher’s sole feature film, the remarkable Hollywood 90028 , mostly languished in obscurity in the decades since its release until being rediscovered and reassessed in recent years. Despite being reissued under the lurid title Twisted Throats and as The Hollywood Hillside Strangler to exploit the notoriety of the 1977-1978 “Hillside Strangler” murders, Hollywood 90028 is not a horror film so much as a somber character study that happens to be about a serial killer. The film captures the downbeat post-Manson moment when the increasing seediness of the entertainment capital’s freewheeling sixties with its adult bookstores, strip clubs, and peep shows revealed a darker, more dangerous side. In addition, the grim film arguably carries an anti-Semitic undercurrent. Christina Hornisher Hollywood 90028 follows the parallel trajectories and intertwined doomed lives of two midwestern tran...