By Tony Skowronski
It’s been a few years since this movie has come out and I remember hearing from all the gore hounds throughout all the Facebook groups how disappointed they were in this cinematic venture.
“ThErE wAsN’t AnY aCtIoN”
“ThIs MoViE wAs SoOoOoOo BoRiNg!”
“ThEy DiDn’T sHoW tHe MuRdErS!”
Make no mistake about it this movie doesn’t focus on any of the murders or atrocities committed by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, but rather the media frenzy that surrounded his trial. Yeah, it doesn’t even focus on his family life which was a BIG part of his personality and WHY his crimes were so shocking. Remember when Kyle Rittenhouse gunned down 2 people in Kenosha? Remember how people defended him by showing pictures of him cleaning up graffiti? Well….those wonderful meme lords took to the Internet and slathered pictures of known serial killers doing nice things. A picture of John Wayne Gacy dressed as his Pogo character, BTK teaching his daughter how to fish and most shocking was the wholesome picture of Ted Bundy washing dishes with his family. It only went to show how anyone can cause bodily harm to another human being.
These are partially why this is an interesting movie if you can get past the lack of gore/bloodshed and carnage which usually sensationalize these kinds of films.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy. THIS is mostly why the gore hounds were upset. I mean how can they take the kid from High School Musical seriously as Ted Bundy?? ACTING THAT’S HOW!
The movie starts out in prison when Liz, Ted’s longtime estranged girlfriend played by Lily Collins visits Ted, then flashes back to when they first met back in 1969 and moves forward from there. We get to see him as a loving caring family man, an aspiring law student and a father figure to Liz’s daughter. Then after a minute of screen time the movie glosses over this and then jumps to a series of murders in Utah performed by a charming man driving a Volkswagen Beetle in 1974 and then the singer of Metallica arrests him. No seriously. Look it up. This is the start of his series of trials and all the cliché courtroom things that happen along the way from 1974-1979 in Utah and Colorado.
The movie shows us the strained relationship between Liz and Ted, his numerous trials in various states, his escape attempts and finally his trial in Florida. We as an audience get to experience the media frenzy as it was the first televised trial, we get to watch Ted act as his own legal representation, his friends and family show their unwavering support, his marriage, how the courtroom was flooded by his army of female supporters and finally the verdict. We get a conclusion that wraps up and comes full circle with Ted confessing to Liz and Liz confessing to Ted that she reported him.
Knowing what we know now, some two score later, yes I used an older measurement of time, we’re still fascinated by Theodore Robert Bundy and his brutal crimes. Now this movie focuses on the trials namely the Chi Omega Murders trial not the killings, not the victims. Those poor unfortunate souls Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman along with the three survivors Cheryl Thomas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, only get a mere mention by actor Jim Parsons as Florida Prosecutor Larry Simpson.
This movie took a LOT of artistic licensing, never mentioning Ted's kleptomania, his controlling behavior, his violent outbursts towards Liz. We get a scene where Ted is forced to get dental photos all set to Metallica's The Four Horsemen. The reality, he agreed because he told the corrections officers that he's "not a violent man". Not to mention the details of his crimes. This movie features none of his attacks on camera, nor does it show how perverse he was. Yeah, this guy would bring severed heads back home and then violate them sexually. NOPE!!! There will be none of that in this movie.
What we do get is what's regarded as an "actor's movie", this means that the cast is given a chance to shine in their roles. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't achieved. The casting is actually surprisingly well. Lily Collins as Liz is probably the weakest part of this movie as she has no real memorable scenes. I mean the lawyers Jim Parsons, Jeffrey Donovan, Dylan Baker all manage to give decent performances in their respective roles, Kaya Scodelario as Carole Ann Boone- the unwavering friend turned Mrs. Bundy. Liz's coworker Jerry, a fictional character and Liz's love interest played by Haley Joel Osment gives a solid performance. Now for two actors who steal this movie. Judge Cowart, played by John Malkovich, who gives us the title and when he recreates the actual Judge Cowart's final verdict, it's almost sympathetic and heartfelt, a feat only an actor of Malkovich's level could achieve.
Finally the elephant in the room. Zac Efron as notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. I will forever defend this casting decision. If you see a side by side comparison, it's unsettling how much they resemble one another. Even Bundy’s former lawyer agreed that Efron was perfectly cast. Bundy was charming and a cult of personality which is why the trial was so fascinating and Efron captures it. During the end credits we get a glimpse of the actual trial and Efron nailed it. He's come a long way since his Disney days and he's proven that he's got range. The comparisons to Efron and Bundy were amazing.
The multi-noun title film, tries to make the audience sympathetic towards Bundy and make us believe that this is a vast conspiracy to incarcerate an innocent man and that he would do anything for his love of Liz. Trying to shock us with the revelation at the end, by showing us one brutal act of violence. The problem with true crime movies are that we the filmgoer already know the outcome, he's found guilty, eventually confesses to around forty murders and of course his execution. Maybe if the movie focused on his celebrity status and how women swooned during his trial, in lieu of a blip in one scene. Just before the end credits where we watch clips of Bundy, we get a list of his victims. Personally I don’t think a list for 10 seconds at the end of the movie does them little justice including Kimberly Leach, which only gets a mention at the end because it was SO disturbing. She was the 12yr old that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered. That was also a separate trial, the same trail where he married Carole Ann Boone. But glossing over her name was I guess a plot device. Her name was Kimberly Leach. This movie fails to show the monster that he was. In favor of romanticizing him for the sake of cinema.
We could have had a more entertaining feature. Maybe if we saw more details of the victims and their struggles to survive in their last moments. The victim’s family testimonies, they existed. The lack of representation to the victims is one of this films biggest crimes. Just a suggestion to possibly make this more authentic…hell maybe if the movie gave Ted the occasional shifty eyes. Which pains me to say because this is from Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, who gave us Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and his feature film the underrated psychological sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. Seriously, his documentary Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes is fascinating. More so than the docudrama he made. I said what I said.
Aside from the acting, this movie IS a letdown especially if you're watching to see how he manipulated and murdered throughout the 1970's. It's definitely not worth two hours of your time. Skip it.
Editor's note: this review ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written. It is film criticism, and its judgements are the author's. Two factual points for the reader. Ted Bundy is recorded in this archive at thirty confessed, so the review's “around forty” is above the archive's figure. And the passing reference to Kyle Rittenhouse states as settled something that is not: he was tried over the Kenosha shootings in 2021 and acquitted on all counts, the jury accepting self defence. The review's point is about how the internet launders reputations with wholesome photographs, and it stands without that framing. The victims the review says the film short-changed are named in it, which is more than it credits the film with doing: Lisa Levy, Margaret Bowman, the survivors Cheryl Thomas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, and Kimberly Leach, who was twelve.