FILM REVIEW: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Zac Efron (Left) as Ted Bundy (Right)

Theodore Robert (Ted) Bundy is one of the most infamous serial killers in American history. Although he has confessed to some thirty different crimes committed in the span of four years from 1974 to 1978, it is popularly believed that his real number of victims is much higher and his time-span dating further back. Ted Bundy is also well known as a criminal who had an extraordinary amount of female supporters, who all supposedly claimed to be "in love" with him due to his good looks and charming personality, which is how he gained the trust of all of his victims (all female); he would typically approach them in a public place feigning injury, lead them to a secluded place, then rape and kill them. Due to the popularity surrounding him, there have been multiple documentaries made about Ted Bundy in an attempt to understand the man, and in May of this year, Netflix released a biographical film on Ted Bundy's life titled Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, with Zac Efron as Bundy. The majority of the film was based on Bundy's former girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer's (written under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kendall) memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, along with direct recreations (and usages) of multiple video clips of interviews and trials.

The first thing I will be addressing in this review is Zac Efron's performance as Ted Bundy. Having only seen Efron previous in High School Musical and The Greatest Showman, and knowing him mostly as a comedic actor, I honestly wasn't excited to see him take on the role of Ted Bundy, as I didn't think he would be able to capture the psychopathic side of Bundy, and I just didn't really see him in such a serious role. When I did watch the film, however, I did come to thoroughly enjoy Efron's performance as Bundy, seemingly capturing the charismatic side of the man perfectly, and having a striking resemblance to the man (see photo above). The film actually just focuses on the charismatic side of Ted Bundy and doesn't actually show Bundy committing any of his crimes, apart from a short flashback of him luring a girl with an injured arm and knocking her out and this allowed Ted Bundy to become more likable somehow in the eyes of the viewer. Even though you do know that Bundy is actually guilty of all of these crimes, the movie paints him in an oddly sympathetic light, making him seem like a horrible victim of bad timing more then anything. Efron's Bundy is nothing but charismatic and likable from the start and continues to keep that persona throughout the film, and it can even make the viewer question if Bundy actually is guilty, constantly doubting the facts, and that's exactly what the directors were going for.

Ted Bundy was a very public figure, and had many female supporters who claimed to be in love with him, and he was generally well-liked by many due to his good looks and extremely charming personality, and this film really delves into that part of him. After a crime is committed in which the victim was lured by the perpetrator into a false sense of security, there are people who always say "Why couldn't the victim figure out that the other person was dangerous?"or "I would have known they were a psychopath." While there absolutely were signs that Bundy was dangerous in real life (he was known to be abusive to his girlfriend and had even threatened her at one point), when making first impressions, Bundy never showed any hints to his true nature. You can genuinely watch any scene in the film where Bundy interacts with someone and it would be impossible to find any signs of malevolent intentions simply because there aren't any. Ted Bundy created a completely different persona for himself in public, and the directors conveyed that amazingly onto the screen, creating a sympathetic Bundy with the overall message that "Real psychopaths blend in perfectly with society" instead of the overly repeated message of "These are the subtle signs of a psychopath, recognize them", and I really liked this idea because it did humanize Bundy to a point where you do begin to understand why people did end up trusting him and why he had such a large female following. Ted Bundy has even said “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” and “Society wants to believe it can identify evil people, or bad or harmful people, but it’s not practical. There are no stereotypes.”, which I feel really fits in with the overall message of the film.

As the movie is based on The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy by former girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, portrayed by Lily Collins (and referred to as Elizabeth Kendall in the film), and so follows Bundy's relationship with her and so is told heavily from her perspective rather then Bundy's. And through that relationship Bundy becomes more sympathetic and likable in the eyes of the viewer. In the first ten minutes of the film, Bundy becomes a surrogate father to Elizabeth's daughter Molly, and he is established as this loving and caring person through his interactions with them. This is why even as Bundy becomes accused of and charged with more and more crimes throughout the course of this film, the viewers continue to doubt his guilt, something that is historical fact, because of his continued devotion to Elizabeth and Molly. This is further enhanced by a recurring object in the book, a French novel by the name of Papillon, which is about a man who is incarcerated wrongfully as he has been framed, plans an escape, and eventually lives a free and happy life. When Bundy gives Elizabeth the novel in the movie, he had already been incarcerated (wrongfully as Elizabeth still seems to believe) and has already escaped custody (only to be captured again). This leads Elizabeth (and the viewers as well) to believe that the film just may end in the same fashion where Bundy is exonerated and lives a happy life, and I think this was another brilliant way by the filmmakers to show off a sympathetic side of Bundy to the audience, fitting the overall concept of humanizing Bundy.

Bundy's relationship with Kendall also relates to the final scene of the film. While this scene is most definitely created solely for the film and has no basis in real life, it does nicely conclude the movie and also finally shows more of the "hidden psychopath" side of Ted Bundy that the film had been missing. In the scene, Elizabeth visits Bundy after he has been sentenced to death and asks him about what happened to the head in one of the cases. After continuously denying that he committed the crime, Bundy finally writes HACKSAW, after Elizabeth tells him "You need to release me, Ted". After this followed a series of montages compiled from clips throughout the film where Elizabeth begins to realize that the signs actually were all there throughout their relationship that Bundy was a violent psychopath and that she didn't notice any of them, which is the opposite of the concept that the film was trying to show, i.e. "Real psychopaths blend in perfectly with society", and instead showing the signs always being there, just obscured by Kendall's love for Bundy (which is much more closer to real life where Kendall did notice signs of Bundy's violent behaviour). 

The revelation also removes any sense of guilt and doubt she had about this case. She says "I could have helped save some of these girls if only I hadn’t trusted you" and "It’s not my guilt. It’s yours". But despite the guilt she carries about not realizing Bundy was a killer sooner, she also carried just a little bit of doubt that Bundy was guilty and had some hope inside her that the man she allowed to be close to her and her daughter was innocent. However, after she gets that confession from Bundy (his first ever confession of his crimes going by the film's continuity), she gets closure for her years of torment and suffering and tells her loved ones that she's finally fine. The film also uses Bundy's love for Elizabeth as motivation for Bundy's eventual confession to over thirty different crimes, as while they do not outright state this, they do say that Bundy confessed after their meeting (which never happened in real life), implying that Bundy's confessions in the film continuity was due to Elizabeth's visit. And this makes perfect sense as the film is very much about Bundy's continued relationship with Elizabeth Kendall, so I personally thought this was a great way for the filmmakers to use this ongoing plot to not only conclude the movie but also the personal stories of of Ted Bundy and Elizabeth Kendall respectively, using the end of their relationships as sort of a conclusion to their respective character arcs in the story.

The film also had an impressive supporting cast with the two strongest performances coming from Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) as Carole Ann Boone, Bundy's lover and later wife and John Malkovich (Johnny English) as Judge Edward Cowart, the presiding judge at Bundy's final tria.

Carole Ann Boone was Ted Bundy's close acquaintance and eventual lover. She defended him fervently, believing until the end that Bundy was truly innocent. She also eventually became his lover and wife, being legally married in the middle of trial. She also became pregnant with Bundy's daughter during a conjugal visit and has since then gone off radar. The film cut out a large portion of their story, moving their relationship to just encompass his Florida trial and nothing about their prior (then-platonic) relationship, which began in 1974. She also helped Bundy escape in 1977 by smuggling money to him, and visited him every day in Colorado. The film portrays Boone as a stalker-like person who becomes public in her support and love for Bundy during his Florida trials in the 80's. This is most likely to further amplify Bundy's charisma and women's attractions towards him during his trials and portray him again as a likable and attractive figure.

Judge Edward Cowart was the presiding judge at Bundy's last case, and from viewings of the actual trial, John Malkovich portrayal of the judge as a somewhat eccentric man is accurate, as most of his lines a lifted straight out of the actual trial and even lines that were added in by Malkovich himself is quite in-keeping with the judge's actual personality. The title of the film "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" is a quote from Cowart describing Bundy's crimes, and yet he also says: "Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It's a tragedy for this court to see such a total waste, I think, of humanity that I have experienced in this court. You’re a bright young man. You would have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself." This quote once again emphasizes Bundy's extreme charisma and likability as a person as even the judge who sentenced him to DEATH actually likes him, which is a strong indication of the kind of man Ted Bundy was; a manipulative, charismatic psychopath who can win you over without the slightest betrayal of his real self.

Theodore Bundy is one of the most infamous figures in 20th Century American history and a very complex person who created a cult of personality around him with a massive fanbase of adoring teenage girls. The film did an amazing job replicating that cult of personality and Zac Efron did a fantastic job of bringing life to the side of Ted Bundy that made him a sympathetic and liked figured in the public's eyes during his trials. I also really liked that they used this very concept to create a clear character arc for both Bundy and Elizabeth, and how both eventually came to terms with what Bundy did, with Bundy no longer lying about his innocence and Elizabeth realizing that Bundy was never innocent and that she had to forget about him. Efron and Collins both brought their best to the film and had great chemistry on screen, and the rest of the supporting cast did a good job to, with only one miscast that I could think of. My one major complaint with the film is that they didn't make Ted Bundy creepy enough. While I understand this film is more about the cult of personality around him, he still was a dangerous mass-murderer, and Zac Efron's portrayal, while good at capturing the charismatic side, isn't exactly menacing or unsettling. While I liked that they humanized Bundy, they humanized him too much to the point that the film's version of him becomes a little too likable, and you don't really get a sense that he is this dangerous criminal accurately enough, and I think that detracted from the portrayal quite a bit, marring what is otherwise a very good film. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile gets a rating of 4/5.

For my next review, I've decided to go back to Stephen King again, looking at one of his many adaptations. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!

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