Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

People forget that Ted Bundy had a plea bargain for only life in prison with no death penalty. He refused it at the last minute which shocked the judge. I still like the 2002 Bundy film with Michael Reilly Burke who also did a great portrayal of Bundy. This is Zac's serious role for once and shows he is a great actor unlike some of his poor comedies.

Even if the main particularity of Ted Bundy is indisputably a disconcerting desire for exceptionally barbaric murders, the movie focuses on an unusual seduction ability thanks to a charismatic eloquence and an extraordinary IQ, and then two women who loved him, Liz Kendall and Carole Anne Boone. Indeed, the film does not really deal with the police investigation and modestly eludes the macabre scenes of crimes, but, on the contrary, it highlights the duality of the monster: an odd mix of a successful womanizer and an accomplished serial killer, of Casanova and Jack the ripper, or an unexpected materialization of Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, the fictional super-villain appearing in comic books published by DC, a criminal obsessed with duality and the conflict between good and evil.

Thus, although Ted Bundy appears or seems 'lovable' in some of the first scenes, the movie depicts us, during the second half, a pathetic seducer of any individual within his tiny environment (the journalists, the jurors, the judge, the audience, ...), able to arrogantly smile like a politician during an election campaign, and devoid of any respect for the victims. This guy will literally sent chills up your spine. The film sadly ends with an exhaustive list of known victims, and as many bruised families.

Great cast, especially Zac Efron unjustly cataloged with movies for decerebrated teenage girls, and excellently supported by Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario, Angela Sarafyan. The atmosphere of the 70s is faithfully transcribed, with a neat photography. At last, it's quite unique to observe a serial killer through the eyes of a woman who truly loved him and was absolutely not aware of his dark side until the media coverage of the murders.

Yes, the title has been claimed to be a bit 'click-baity.' You're probably thinking you're going to be watching the most hardcore and depraved film ever made. Well... you're not, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth a watch.

It's the - sort of - biography of real life seventies serial killer, Ted Bundy. And, if you're interested in his life then this is definitely going to interest you. Plus it has the - quite bankable - Zac Efron as the titular killer, Bundy and this is where the film starts to draw criticism from some people. They say that, because of Efron's natural good looks and charm, he draws quite a lot of sympathy towards the crazed killer. This may be true, however it's also worth noting that the real life Bundy was also considered attractive and it was his natural charm that allowed him such easy access to his unsuspecting victims, so, in my opinion, the casting is spot on.

In fact, it's Efron that steals the show in his portrayal of the psychopath and this is definitely one for his acting C.V. Now, back to the title again. I've watched other films about Ted Bundy and they were pretty strong stuff, all choosing to show his hideous kills and various crimes. In 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,' unless I'm much mistaken, you don't actually see a single kill. Whereas most other biopics start with the crimes and progress to show Bundy's capture and imprisonment etc, this one pretty much starts off with him getting arrested and the rest is the subsequent trial. Therefore, anyone expecting gore and violence will be sorely let down by the title.

The rest of the cast all play their parts well, including Lily Collins as Bundy's conflicted (main) love interest, plus John Malkovich shows up in the final third as a judge in Bundy's trial. From what I understand the film-makers have done their best to portray the events pretty accurately, even going as far as to recreate photos from Bundy's life and also copy parts of the dialogue from public appearances word for word.

So, as I say, if you're into real life killers and/or Zac Efron then you're in for a real treat here. However, if you're looking for kills and gore then you're not going to find it here.

There's something about serial killers that we as an audience find undeniably fascinating. I don't really know what it is, other than putting yourself in a world that 99% of us will never come close to. Ted Bundy's story is among America's most notorious, vile, evil, and wicked. However, the film never dives deep enough to give the audience that type of reaction. And you can make the argument that doing so would be exploitive and off putting, and your more than likely right, but I expected to be more unsettled by Zac Efron's turn as Ted Bundy. The last 20 minutes are really well handled though, especially as Lily Collins' 'Liz Kendall' finally begins to invite us into her psyche, but perhaps all too late. Perhaps a story like this does ultimately work much better in a TV series/Documentary format. - i.e. the Netflix one earlier this year.

6.4/10

As many others have stated, this isn't a film about Ted Bundy on one of his murdering sprees. This is about Bundy himself and how he made his way in the world. Someone said at one point they found themselves rooting for him. I never did, but that's because at my age, it's hard to fool me after all the phonies I've met.

Some people will be disappointed because we didn't get to see all the horror he visited on women, but it was a refreshing change of emphasis here.

To see the young women salivating over him in the courtroom, cheering him on, was both shocking and expected. Real footage was used. I remember women doing that over the Menendez brothers.

Part of it is the old takeoff on a Geraldo Show - "Men in Prison and the Women Who Love Them," a phenomenon that happens time and time again. With Bundy, because he was particularly good-looking, it was an even stronger reaction.

Zac Efron is a favorite of mine -he resembles my favorite classic film star, Tyrone Power, and I thought he captured the charm and personality of a whack job really well. Lily Collins is terrific as his girlfriend. Both of these actors are growing into exceptional performers.

In the end "Extremely Wicked" makes a sad statement. Good looks. Confidence, and charm will bring you a long way in this world. We've seen it too often. It's time to start looking at people's souls. The external is, after all, only that.