The Stranger Beside Me

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.

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.

This was a well written story, however there were a tremendous amount of scenes out of sync with the film. For example, the scene is set in 1975 yet everyone is at a juice bar located inside a gym (which didn't become popular until the late 1980's) and everyone was dressed like it was 1990 something. Then, the 1988 version of Standing On Shaky Ground plays in the background..then Ted, the only person dressed like the 70's midst the large group dressed like skaters from the 1990's, suddenly stands up and walks out into the parking garage where we see cars ranging from 1972 to 1978, exactly 3 years into the future. The movie is well done however whoever made these mistakes was pretty blind. I can understand a few errors in the film here and there and I do not expect perfection, but if you have a movie set in the 70's, don't include fashions and music and hair styles from 20 years into the future.

The only thing really worth noting about this wildly inaccurate and misleading movie is Billy Campbell's portrayal of Ted Bundy. Of the various movies about Bundy there have been through the years, Campbell's performance as Bundy is one of the better versions, but that's about where it ends. Bundy and Ann Rule were not "close friends" nor did they have anything other than a co-worker relationship for a short time. Bundy was nothing more than a fraud and a poseur and yet he's often portrayed as some overachieving success story and nothing could be further from the truth. Someone here even referred to him as a "criminal mastermind." Nonsense. Inform yourself.

What bothered me most about this movie is that none of the victims real names were used and they should never be forgotten. Rule uses their names in her book, so why not in the movie? Even though his victims were many, the crime that ultimately sent Bundy to the electric chair was the murder of a 12 year old Florida girl named Kimberly Leach and her murder isn't even mentioned in the movie. As another reviewer suggested, for an accurate and detailed accounting of Bundy and his crimes, read the book or watch a documentary. There are many out there. I especially recommend the book published in 2023 by Chi Omega survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.

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.