Genre: Drama/ Crime
Runtime: 110 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelaria, Haley Joel Osment, John Malkovich, James Hetfield, Jim Parsons, Jeffrey Donovan, Dylan Baker
Description: A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy (Zac Efron) from the perspective of Liz (Lily Collins), his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2020 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 30: A BIOPIC
Review: Ted Bundy has gone down in history as one of the most charming serial killers ever. He easily managed to wrap the ladies around his fingers, before he kidnapped, raped and killed them. His trial was broadcast live on TV and earned him many female admirers. When news got out that Zac Efron would play Bundy, there was a lot of protest. But Efron proves that he can handle it.
Efron finally gets a role he can really embrace. He draws attention to himself in all the scenes by underlining Bundy’s skill with his charm. In doing so, he makes exactly as much use of his strengths as the real serial killer did to control the media circus around his trials. Is Efron the perfect actor to play this role? No, I can think of a hand full of actors that go do it as well. But Efron is really good as Ted Bundy and especially at the beginning of the film, he even looks very much like Bundy.
It seems like Joe Berlinger had no idea what he exactly wanted to tell in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”. Berlinger is experienced as a documentary filmmaker and made the docu-series “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes”. So he can very well create a story from historical facts, but his fiction debut is a more enumeration of events than a conclusive story with a tension curve and a climax.
At the start of the film , Bundy’s girlfriend (well portrayed by Lily Collins) seems to be central. The question seems to be: what is it like to find out you’ve fallen for a monster? However, he characters disappears completely into the background in the second half of the film, when the authorities try to bring Bundy to justice. Bundy is looking for loopholes, both legal and literal. But the most remarkable thing is that it’s hard to determine whether he’s guilty or not. We never see anything about the actual murders.
What Berlinger does show talent for in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” is directing actors and building stand-alone scenes.
“Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” is a bit of a disappointment, but does have some strong performances. I expected something different from a Ted Bundy biopic.
Rating: 2,5 / 5
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