Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Berlinger failed at this. In the documentary The Ted Bundy Tapes, he painted a very detailed portrait of a psychopath / uncertain poser / media star who perfectly enjoys the position of a manipulator. In the film, he immersed himself quite clumsily in one of the episodes from the life of the serial killer and tries to build a story whose perspective will be that of light enchantment. The film thus portrays Ted as he saw himself - as an irresistible sovereign, a romantic fugitive, or a charming star who lights up in front of the camera. Zac Efron nails this aspect of him with pleasure, which unfortunately sometimes borders on campiness (the scene where Ted escapes from the Colorado courthouse and walks down the hippie macho street is more like a B-movie comedy). The arc of the film has a clear tendency to shock by reversing the perspective in the last minutes, but it only works at the cost of a lot of cheap reduction and posturing. As a director, Berlinger is no great psychologist, and in fact the scene with the dog barking and demonic glances through the bars smells of a lack of a killer’s skills on the part of the creators. At the same time, there is no denying that the character of Liz (a victim that Ted did not physically harm) could be very impressive elsewhere... but here, she is so passive and purposeful that she cannot be taken very seriously. Bundy is a fascinating character at the very moment when he manages to penetrate behind the mask of the American dream. The documentary was able to deftly remove it, whereas the film gets a little drunk on it. (03/05/2019)

Before watching it, I had no idea what Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was actually about. Maybe that's why I found it quite suspenseful. Zac Efron isn't one of my favorites, so it's a wonder he was able to keep my attention for the duration of the film. And not only that! He played the womanizing serial killer Ted Bundy so well that I believed in his innocence until the last moment. (70%) (04/12/2021)

This is an interestingly grasped and successfully made profile of a madman capable of hiding his true personality almost even from himself. The film does not show a single Bundy murder and only depicts his deceptively “normal” position. If it weren’t for two hints of his dark nature, it would appear that he perhaps wants to deny the accusations against him. Efron turns in an entertaining performance with his portrayal of Bundy’s wily adroitness as a law student in the courtroom. And it is emotional with the story of his girlfriend, torn by the inner conflict between being in love and doubts/fears that she might be wrong in believing in his innocence. Her situation is the film’s dramatic engine. (22/01/2020)

He's young, charming, educated, handsome, and he also kills women sometimes. Ted Bundy was one of America's most terrifying serial killers, but what he was doing was long refused to be believed by those closest to him and much of the American public. And Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile shows that this is actually quite understandable... Zac Efron gives a very good performance and Joe Berlinger is quite clever at playing with the audience. Unfortunately, the film runs out of ideas somewhere in the middle and starts to become unnecessarily transparent and frankly a bit untrustworthy. Which is quite a pity. (23/05/2019)

A bold piece of filmmaking aimed at pissing off everyone who went to see a movie about Ted Bundy. A film made from his fabricated point of view as an intelligent, young, charismatic, and most importantly, innocent handsome man who, thanks to the aforementioned parameters, uses his persuasiveness to gather fans from the ranks of violence freaks, who in turn are pinned to him by the idea of a public trial filled with lurid descriptions of the details of Bundy's actions. Acts that we, on the other hand, see virtually nothing of and for the most part aren't even mentioned throughout the film. And implies that if we have a problem with that, we might as well get in line behind the wacky fans of this murderous celebrity. In fact, the film ultimately turns its full attention at the end to the tragic figure of Bundy's girlfriend, actually his biggest victim, who has lived for fifteen years wondering who she was really hanging out with because even Ted is unable to redeem her to the last moment with the truth. Whatever that is. Berlinger's film isn't very well made, it contains some downright idiotic scenes (the dogs successfully identifying the killer), and the casting agency party that led to this cast will take at least a week to recover from, but it's a respectable treatment of a certain uncomfortable thesis that boldly identifies the very specific hypocrisy that applies to almost every one of us who saw the film. And that concept is worthy of respect in our infantile pop culture zeitgeist. (23/08/2019)