Chuck Parello Biography

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 of a Serial Killer (1986) for MPI, a Chicago-based film company. MPI was so impressed by Parello's tension-filled script for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 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 of a Serial Killer, Part 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 of a Serial Killer, Part 2 (1996) as well so they asked Parello to write and direct In the Light of the Moon (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 Psycho (1960), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In the Light of the Moon (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. In the Light of the Moon (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, 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.