Chuck Parello
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Writer/Director Chuck Parello, a Chicago native and graduate of the
city's Columbia College, had been running director
John McNaughton's development company
for over three years when he was hired to write a sequel to
McNaughton's chilling cult classic
Henry, portrait d'un serial killer (1986)
for a Chicago-based film company. The company was so impressed by
Parello's tension-filled script for
Henry, portrait d'un serial killer 2 (1996),
which plunged the sociopathic main character into the dark world of
arson for profit, that they also asked him to direct the piece. Shot
during a frigid Chicago winter,
Henry, portrait d'un serial killer 2 (1996)
earned kudos during its theatrical release from critics who said it was
a genuinely creepy and entirely worthy follow-up to McNaughton's film.
The production company Tartan Films was struck by
Henry, portrait d'un serial killer 2 (1996)
as well so they asked Parello to write and direct Ed Gein (2000).
The delectably disquieting movie that ensued, winner of Best Picture
and Best Actor at the Siges International Film Festival, chronicles the
true-life exploits of an infamous momma's boy/killer
(Ed Gein) from the 1950s whose grave robbing and
other odd behaviors influenced such landmark films as
Psychose (1960),
Massacre à la tronçonneuse (1974)
and
Le silence des agneaux (1991).
Ed Gein (2000), which stars
Steve Railsback and
Carrie Snodgress, was theatrically
released by First Look Pictures and was praised by critics for its
subtle and restrained direction as well as the haunting, highly
convincing performances by Railsback and Snodgress. Ed Gein
(2000) was such a huge success around
the world that Parello was next asked to write and direct
The Hillside Strangler (2004)
for Tartan Films. Based on the true 1977-79 case that paralyzed all of
Los Angeles with fear, the film stars
C. Thomas Howell as
Kenneth Bianchi and
Nicholas Turturro as
Angelo Buono Jr., two cousins who
went on a sex-crazed killing spree together that claimed twelve
innocent victims. The theatrical release was praised by critics as
subversive, stylish and blackly comic and the mesmerizing performances
by Howell and Turturro were also singled out. Parello, who obviously
loves true crime, is next scheduled to direct another hard-boiled,
fact-based script he wrote named "City Gas," which concerns a ruthless,
gangster-obsessed businessman who hires a career criminal to commit a
string of contract murder for him over one long, hot summer.
Naveen Andrews is attached to star.
