Writer/Director Chuck Parello, a native of Chicago and alumnus of Columbia College, spent over three years running director John McNaughton's development company before being hired to pen a sequel to McNaughton's cult classic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) for a Chicago-based film company.
Parello's tense script for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2 (1996) so impressed the company that they also asked him to direct the piece. Shot during a frigid Chicago winter, the film earned critical acclaim upon its theatrical release, with critics praising its genuinely creepy and worthy follow-up to McNaughton's original.
The production company Tartan Films was so impressed with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2 (1996) that they asked Parello to write and direct Ed Gein (2000). This delectably disquieting film, winner of Best Picture and Best Actor at the Siges International Film Festival, chronicles the true-life exploits of infamous killer Ed Gein, whose grave robbing and odd behaviors influenced landmark films such as Psycho (1960),The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974),and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Ed Gein (2000),starring Steve Railsback and Carrie Snodgress, was theatrically released by First Look Pictures and praised by critics for its subtle and restrained direction, as well as the haunting performances by Railsback and Snodgress. The film's success led to Parello being asked to write and direct The Hillside Strangler (2004) for Tartan Films.
Based on the true 1977-79 case that paralyzed 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, with the mesmerizing performances by Howell and Turturro singled out.
Parello, who is clearly fascinated by true crime, is set to direct another fact-based script, "City Gas", which concerns a ruthless, gangster-obsessed businessman who hires a career criminal to commit a string of contract murders over one long, hot summer. Naveen Andrews is attached to star in the film.
