EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE (2019) ** ½

I tried watching director Joe (Book of Shadows:  Blair Witch 2) Berlinger’s Netflix show about Ted Bundy, but I could barely keep my eyes open during the first episode, so I never went back for seconds.  This biopic, also made by Berlinger for Netflix is slightly more engaging, mostly due to Zac Efron’s performance as one of America’s most notorious (and charming) serial killers.  

Ted dotes on his loving girlfriend (Lily Collins), who blindly returns his love, even when he is accused of numerous brutal murders of young women and carted off to jail.  After numerous escapes, Ted is finally detained in Florida where his trial is televised across the nation.  As she becomes more and more emotionally distant, another flame (Crawl’s Kaya Scodelario) comes to Ted’s aid and stands by him in his moment of need.  

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is frustratingly vague when it comes to some of the biggest aspects in the Bundy case.  We never see Bundy stalking his victims and killing them, which is an odd miscalculation.  I guess this was done to spare the victims’ families or to avoid glamorizing Bundy’s mythos.  Berlinger is more interested in how two very different women stand by their man even when it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain he’s guilty as sin.  To that end, the movie only works in fits and starts.

It’s hard to say if Berlinger wants us to sympathize with the women who love Bundy.  The filmmakers also curiously sidestep much of his brutality, which further hampers the drama.  I mean why watch something called Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile if we never really see him do anything that lives up to the lurid title?  

It’s also difficult to know who the movie was made for.  Serial Killer fans and true-life crime fanatics will probably be left cold because of the lack of forensic detail, while those expecting a straight drama will undoubtedly feel a bit unsatisfied by the clunky love triangle.  The courtroom scenes late in the film are certainly fun and have an energy to them the rest of the flick lacks.  That’s thanks largely to the casting of John Malkovich as the hammy judge and Jim Parsons as the squirrely prosecutor.  

The film is ambiguous about whether or not Bundy committed the crimes up until the closing moments, which further adds to the frustration.  Ambiguity certainly has its place in fiction, but in a film about one of America’s most notorious serial killers--a man who was tried, convicted, and eventually confessed to his crimes—ambiguity doesn’t work. There’s a courtroom scene late in the game in which Bundy says something to the effect of, “The man who you see today isn’t the man guilty of these crimes”, perhaps suggesting he was a split personality or just plain out-and-out lying. It’s like they want us to believe Bundy had an alter ego, but we never get to see his other side.  It’s like making a movie about Clark Kent and only showing him as Superman in brief flashes in the closing moments.  Not that I’d compare Bundy to Superman, although we all know if there was a Justice League for serial killers, Bundy would definitely be the Superman.  I mean he’s got the looks and all-American charm for sure, and... 

Okay, I’m getting on a weird tangent here.  Let’s wrap this thing up…

Even though much of the film is frustrating, it remains a fine showcase for Efron.  If nothing else, it allows the actor to shed his squeaky-clean Disney image by playing a psycho like Bundy.  I just wish he was allowed to get a little more down and dirty.  Seeing him hacking up unsuspecting women could’ve gone a long way from distancing himself from that High School Musical crap.