Director: Joe Berlinger
Writer: Michael Werwie (Screenplay) Elizabeth Kendall (Book)
Starring: Lily Collins, Zac Efron, Kaya Scodelario, John Malkovich, Jim Parsons, Jeffrey Donovan, Haley Joel Osment, Angela Sarafyan
Plot: A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Tagline – The Story Behind America’s Most Notorious Serial Killer
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fantastically Tense
Story: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starts as we see Liz (Collins) visiting Ted (Efron) in prison, this leads to her flashing back to how the two first met in Seattle, the two have continued to grow a family, in the shadow of the mysterious killings of young woman in and around the local states.
When Ted first gets arrested for jumping stop signs, it soon spirals into attempted kidnapping before Ted gets charged with the murder of the girls on the university compass, with escapes mounting charges, can Ted continue to convince Liz that he is innocent.
Thoughts on Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Characters – Liz Kendall is the single mother that starts dating Ted, she loves how he accepts her child and is accepted by her child. She is never going to accept that Ted has committed the crimes he once did, she is blinded by the love and charm Ted offers her. Ted Bundy is the most notorious serial of the last century, he used he good looks and charms to trick his victims, though we never see this on camera, we follow Ted as he convinces Liz he isn’t the killer, while using his charm and intelligence to stay ahead of the court cases he is facing, this version of Ted is one that played to the media that got the following and people interested in the case about his life. Carole Anne Boone is the woman that starts following Ted through his trial, she is just like the rest of the women, who is easily seduced by his charm. Judge Edward D Cowart is the Judge in the Florida trial, he must deal with Ted taking the trial into a media circus while remaining neutral through the case.
Performances – Lily Collins is the woman that was in love with Ted, in her performance we get to see how she is dealing with the guilt of not knowing or wanting to know the truth about Ted. Zac Efron has just shown the world that he is a major player in the acting field, this is easily the strongest performance of his career that is filled with the charm his character requires and the disturbing look behind his eyes. John Malkovich brings the much-needed calm presence for a judge. Kaya Scodelario is great to breaking away from the typical roles we are used to seeing her in.
Story – The story here instantly gets the talking points, first any film that shows us the events of a known serial killer shouldn’t be put front and center of a story, they don’t deserve to be the ones remembered over their victims. Away from that point, we get to follow most of the court cases involving Ted, this is refreshing as we don’t have to watch his horrible actions, just see how the cases are trying to prove whether he was the one behind the murders. The story does become interesting to see unfold because we are left to almost see why it was so hard to believe he was the killer by the way he handled himself trying to prove his innocence. This is easily the best way to look at the Ted Bundy story because it doesn’t glorify the violence he caused and showed us just how determined the authorities were to bring him down.
Biopic/Crime – The biopic side of the film showed us just how Liz Kendall was involved in the life of Ted Bundy, how her love made it hard for her to believe he was this evil, we do see how Ted Bundy was determined to prove he was never guilty of the crimes, which leads into the world the crimes that have been committed.
Settings – A lot of the film is set in and around the courtrooms showing how the case is being broken down.
Scene of the Movie – The verdict speech.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does seem to skip out a lot of the timeline of the murders.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the best performances from Zac Efron that brings to life the serial killer Ted Bundy, showing how he would use his natural talents to charm and intelligence to attempt to get off everything he is being charged for.
Overall: Must Watch biopic.
Rating
