Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

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)

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)

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)

Well, just yesterday I was complaining about the tendency to sensationalize heinous criminals on the silver screen, and here we are again. The film centers around Ted Bundy, but his crimes seem almost secondary. Instead, the creators chose to highlight how disgustingly charming that bastard appeared (particularly to women). While they weren't wrong in their portrayal, I found their approach deeply unsettling. It felt like watching a film about Josef Mengele where they focus on his exemplary family life, his appeal to women, and how dashing he looked in his SS uniform, only briefly mentioning his penchant for experimenting on people and deciding their fates by the thousands. Wouldn't that be a pleasant watch? Absolutely not. This film disappointed me primarily because it seemed to glorify this charismatic asshole (and I won't apologize for that word) who tortured and murdered women for sheer pleasure, without the film giving adequate attention to his victims. If I had known any of his victims personally, I doubt I could stomach watching this until the end. / Lesson learned: Murderers aren't rock stars; they're killers of innocent people. (27/03/2022)

Excellent work in terms of topic and screenplay. The same may be said of the two main characters, Z. Efron and L. Collins, one of whom gave a wonderfully in-depth studied performance which was almost completely flawless and the other presented a really dramatic struggle between feelings and conscience. I hadn’t heard about the real events before seeing this movie and I liked how the filmmakers left out the violent part, concentrating more on the main hero and demonstrating why he was so admired and popular. This movie really is worth seeing. (13/12/2020)