The Stranger Beside Me

Ann Rules' books including the Stranger Beside Me offers a detailed complex and complicated version of the events around Ted Bundy. Who would have thought that even a seasoned policewoman turned writer would be sitting next to a serial killer on Tuesdays nights for a Suicide hot line. There is no wonder that Ted Bundy got away with so much. He was brilliant and conscious. He graduated college and was attending law school. But there was a dark side behind the image of a charming, intelligent political promising young man and that is what Ann Rule tries to bring forth to the public in her book and in her movie. Sadly, the movie does touch on some bit of his past including the possible connection with a young girl's disappearance and the horrifying crimes against the women in the film. Not all of the victims were shown but the film can scare anybody from hitchhiking away for sure. Ann Rule was a lot stronger than the portrayal. She has three other children which are not at all mentioned. Barbara Hershey did a favorable job in playing Ann Rule. The actor, Billy Campbell, played Ted Bundy was absolutely chilling and tragic all at once. You just cringed with sadness when you heard the judge's remarks about him and if he had only chosen another way to live.

This film is a fictional portrayal of Ann Rule's relationship with serial killer Ted Bundy (played by Billy Campbell). How true it is or not, I have no idea. It relies on Rule's point of view, with Rule being portrayed by Barbara Hershey, and some scenes do not even involve her, so at the very least the dialogue is just a bunch of bull.

Ted Bundy working with crime writer and ex-cop Ann Rule at a crisis hotline, where they have paramedics tracing the calls and arriving in record time. Also, Bundy as a Republican fundraiser and personal aide who knows the governor of Washington. I admit I never knew much about Bundy, but this is more interesting than I had imagined.

How Bundy, after being accused of murdering a dozen girls, gets out on bail is beyond me. He says that after one semester of law school he knows enough to "torpedo" the prosecution, but I have no idea how this can be true.

I appreciate the reference to Gary Gilmore and how Norman Mailer is writing a book about him. Gilmore is a far less-known killer, but treated here as though he is much bigger (which was probably true at the time). How he then escapes from Colorado and gets to Florida, gets a car, a fake identification and more... he is truly a criminal mastermind.

As I am not well-versed in Ted Bundy's story, and not not say how accurate this film is, I can say it was very well made. I was engaged, and enthralled by how interesting it was. And to be able to have both Ann Rule and Bundy's story told simultaneously adds a really good angle, since Bundy's story by itself would be more exploitative than anything.

This film absolutely nothing like the truth. For starters it glosses over the ineptitude of the police, leaves out crucial and well known events (including murders and Bundy's post-murder habits), and plays out like a soap.

The acting is boring and often bad, the events that are portrayed are skidded over which gives everything a feeling of unimportance, and the tone of the film is just flat.

Instead of watching this you should watch documentaries and read books and find out as much as possible about what happened.

TV movie about the crimes of Ted Bundy & his friendship with author Ann Rule. I have not read her book so cannot comment upon this adaptation but I have read about Bundy & would recommend this movie to anybody interested in learning about the serial killer. The film is gripping, well made and has a good level of acting. .My only gripe is that the characters don't appear to age despite being spread over a couple of decades.

Overall, this movie is "meh." It lacks accuracy. Many of the quotes are presented out of context. Events are portrayed incorrectly or out of order. It was pretty typical of a made-for-tv movie, which is probably why it went direct to dvd. All that aside, Billy Campbell does the best interpretation of Bundy I've seen in all of the movies about him. He captures the chameleon nature of the man by constantly changing his hairstyle and facial expressions. His voice mimics Bundy's well. So it is worth a watch just to see Campbell.