Ted Bundy Film Reviewed | Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil

Before the release of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (EWSEV) released Mother of Movies and watched Ted Bundy Tapes: Conversations with a Killer. Despite the fanfare for EWSEV, the new Ted Bundy film brought nothing new to the stories and news cover most people will have already seen or read about.

The story’s focus isn’t on the details of the murders. Instead, this additional film about Ted Bundy centers on concentrating on the women in his life. For me, I found it quite beige. I enjoyed the Ted Bundy Tapes and 1986 The Deliberate Stranger more than this.

Zac Efron Ted Bundy Movie Release Date?

The Ted Bundy film originally premiered at Sundance on January 26th. It was then distributed with Netflix on 3rd May 2019 with a Blu-ray and DVD release on 4 July 2019. The Ted Bundy movie is not on UK Netflix though.

Fame VS Infamy

Individuals can be famous or notorious in similar ways. I would even take a stab at guessing Ted Bundy would be the most famous serial killer in history. I was excited about this film’s release and curious about what happened through the eyes of different people in the well-worn narrative. Liz Kendall (aka Elizabeth Kloepfer) makes an interesting talking point as the live-in lover of Ted during his formative years.

That’s not to say I wanted more rehashing of the murders. I’m fine with its absence. However, the narrative does the bare minimum creating any substance as to why Liz might have called the police. After she saw the sketch on television about the killings it’s made out to be some weird coincidence for her. Sure there are a few montages of memory-laden flashbacks where she thinks about him caressing her neck for too long.

But it would have been nice to have seen her also mulling over Ted’s inconsistent behavior. Wouldn’t there have been times of second-guessing and curiosity? Surely Ted would have been awol with no explanation from time to time. According to the book this film is based on there was plenty of meat for this Ted Bundy sandwich.

Performances in the Ted Bundy Film

Performances are strong here. I’ve already seen a lot of chatter about just how great Zac Effron is. He was excellent at portraying the man who killed more than a dozen people. But this felt like a film to humanize Bundy more than I’ve ever seen before. The score is the romantic edge-laden story with Liz. The remorse of the sentencing judge for his wasted life. Lily Collins was also very good. I even read she went and met with the real-life Liz while filming. She was quoted to have said, “She was lovely.” Ahhh, that’s nice.

It’s been confirmed many times that he was a ladies’ man. The era of his crimes made Ted a big surprise to the world. Serial killers were never assumed to be people who could move about freely amongst regular folk. I liked that the film covered a tiny little sliver of that, for example, when he was depicted studying in the library. Almost as if to say that Bundy was like a kid in a candy store when it came to cruising for his next target.

Ladies Man

Again though, this side to him was wasted. It’s quickly cut short by the subtext of his whereabouts being under scrutiny. Someone was following him and he was ushered out of the public library. I think covering whoever was tailing him would have been more interesting. Or even if they had featured the conversation between the security guard and the mystery car.

I’m not sure the movie was done exceptionally well considering the vigorous hype surrounding it. Surely there are ways to give the people what they want while also veering away from the murders? If you’re trying to tell the story through the eyes of the ladies in his life, there wasn’t much to see.

What is extremely wicked shockingly evil and vile based on?

This film was inspired by Liz’s book The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. From what I’ve already researched there was much more to perceivably chew on than we get here.

We know Ted was a lady’s man, a con, and someone likable. What we don’t know is how he flipped that switch between his two worlds. That’s what I wanted from this. I wanted the clues that would have been garnered from what I’ve discovered is a very expensive novel to purchase. And instead of getting to see that Liz’s previous husband was also a convicted felon and that her penchant was obviously for men like Ted, we got a heavily sifted story with no extra details.

It’s Still a Ted Bundy Film

We didn’t get to see Liz find numerous items in the apartment that are mentioned in the memoir. This movie would have you look at whether or not maybe, just maybe she knew something while reminiscing about her love for him. We didn’t even see the precipice of her fall into depression during the more hairy parts of the trial. She did smoke lots of cigarettes though.

Other Bad People

Even from a comparative standpoint of the docu-drama Dirty John (also on Netflix), there were easily two sides to the story told. In that series, you get a taste of both. The Dirty John series is set through the eyes of John’s partner and her kids. At least in that, we get to see how he got away with so many things for so long. While wanting to throw things at the screen due to her gullibility, you could still see why it happened.

Here, after the short-winded climatic drama towards the final scenes of this Ted Bundy film, you get a list of known victims at the end. That list is long. Why make him out to be less of a monster than he really was? It’s almost like for 99% of the film they wanted to cast a shadow of doubt over his innocence and highlight how easy it was for two women to fall for him. Did she just need to hear the words from the horse’s mouth to feel better?

That angle might have been interesting for some audiences, but for me, it wasn’t the story I wanted.

I give Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile

3 Yes, Zac Efron can do a good Bundy impersonation out of 5

The Cast of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

In Addition, Here Are Some More Serial Killers Like Ted Bundy

• The Clovehitch Killer 2018
• Into the Dark— Episode 1, The Body
• Bad Samaritan 2018
• Hell Fest 2018
• Halloween 2018
• Chained