Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

"There are things you don’t know that will shock you beyond your worst nightmares."

Since the Netflix Documentary series, “The Ted Bundy Tapes”, was released in January, the world has been patiently waiting for the release of the movie accompaniment, starring Zac Efron as America’s most notorious serial killer, and Lily Collins as his lovestruck girlfriend, from whose perspective the film is based around, “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”.

Ted Bundy was triumphant in seducing not only his victims, but the millions that watched his live court trial, and Efron’s startling smarminess and alluring nature that he brought to the role captured the levels of arrogance and swagger that Bundy relied upon sublimely.

Zac Efron had a similar level of blinding celebrity status, albeit for very different reasons, after his success in High School Musical, with women and girls eagerly throwing themselves at him thanks to his boyish charm, so it was fitting for him to be able to yield that aspect. It allowed him to play up to the audience, wrapping them successfully around his finger as Bundy so often did.

The film teetered dangerously on the edge of being downright biased towards Bundy, and for a picture that was namely “made for the victims,” it was a factor that sat uneasily with me incessantly throughout the film. It might have been an interesting outlook had the story been one of fiction, but as this was based on a man that has caused such horror and pain, it was a distasteful angle for the film to have been conveyed. Whilst it doesn’t explicitly endorse him in any way, the almost constant narrative attempts to make the audience feel sympathy for Bundy grew increasingly hard to swallow.

Whilst the film was generally enjoyable, it struggled to escape feeling very shallow in it’s storytelling. The tale of Ted Bundy comes down wholly to his sickening crimes, so for a recount of his life to so minimally focus on the monstrosities he carried out against vulnerable young women seems almost like it diminishes the obscenities that occured. Obviously the sexual violations and the murders were so blatantly horrific that you couldn’t possibly go about trying to reimagine them for a film, but in the absence of any brutal substance, it leaves the biopic feeling very unfinished, and like it barely scratches the surface.

★★★