Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

[Karen885]

Talk about the Netflix movie about Ted Bundy

Edited May 8, 2019 by Athena
title changed

[Karen885]

I loved this movie.  I'm not a Ted Bundy expert but I thought Zac Efron was fantastic.  The perfect mix of charismatic and sociopathic.  I watched it with my boyfriend who is from a different country and had never heard of Ted Bundy.  For most of the movie he thought Ted was being framed.  The movie is told from the POV of his girlfriend who thought he was innocent so I guess the movie succeeded at that.  

Carol Ann Boone seemed like the craziest person in this movie.  How do you marry Ted Bundy in the middle of a muder trial??

[DangerousMinds]

The name of this movie is actually “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.”

[MsNewsradio]

I was actually very disappointed with this. Performances aside (I though Zac did a great job), I think the concept of having the film framed through the girlfriend’s eyes and avoiding any depiction of Ted’s crimes was a mistake. I know what they were going for - they wanted the audience to feel duped by him as well, like so many people were over the years - but the “twist” in the final (and completely fabricated) confrontation comes too little too late. 

The film soft pedals a guy who committed heinous, brutal crimes, and for people who don’t have any prior knowledge of Bundy, the severity of what he did and how dangerous he was doesn’t come across at all. There was a great movie concept in here somewhere, but this didn’t deliver on it. They’d be better off watching the confession tapes doc, also on Netflix (and it surprised me the director whiffed this so bad since he made that as well). 

[Racj82]

20 minutes ago, MsNewsradio said:

I was actually very disappointed with this. Performances aside (I though Zac did a great job), I think the concept of having the film framed through the girlfriend’s eyes and avoiding any depiction of Ted’s crimes was a mistake. I know what they were going for - they wanted the audience to feel duped by him as well, like so many people were over the years - but the “twist” in the final (and completely fabricated) confrontation comes too little too late. 

The film soft pedals a guy who committed heinous, brutal crimes, and for people who don’t have any prior knowledge of Bundy, the severity of what he did and how dangerous he was doesn’t come across at all. There was a great movie concept in here somewhere, but this didn’t deliver on it. They’d be better off watching the confession tapes doc, also on Netflix (and it surprised me the director whiffed this so bad since he made that as well). 

I knew this would be popular opinion but I don't agree. Showing the violence is just another form of exploitation to me.

In this movie we were put, basically, in the minds of all the people that had to deal with his madness. It's actually a more logical approach and it made his crimes hit harder when they would lean into his grizzly crimes in trial. I was surprised they made this choice but I didn't mind it. 

People seem to have fond memories of the deliberate stranger but that one soft peddled Ted. The only time we live in his crimes to a fuller extent was the campus dorm murders. Even then, we only got the gist of half if what he did.

Also, after listening to podcasts of this man, I'm honestly thankful I didn't have to see his actual crimes. Vile puts it mildly.

[MsNewsradio]

9 hours ago, Racj82 said:

I knew this would be popular opinion but I don't agree. Showing the violence is just another form of exploitation to me.

In this movie we were put, basically, in the minds of all the people that had to deal with his madness. It's actually a more logical approach and it made his crimes hit harder when they would lean into his grizzly crimes in trial. I was surprised they made this choice but I didn't mind it. 

People seem to have fond memories of the deliberate stranger but that one soft peddled Ted. The only time we live in his crimes to a fuller extent was the campus dorm murders. Even then, we only got the gist of half if what he did.

Also, after listening to podcasts of this man, I'm honestly thankful I didn't have to see his actual crimes. Vile puts it mildly.

I’m not saying they need to depict his crimes in graphic detail (I’m not looking for them to ‘Criminal Minds’ this), but I know multiple people who watched this this weekend who didn’t have any background on Ted Bundy and didn’t come away with any sort of real understanding of the true depth of his depravity.  And the reality is - what he did was terrible. What he did was graphic. He raped, murdered, dismembered, and often had sex with the corpses of his victims. He truly was the definition of evil. People should be uncomfortable walking away from a film about him. If anything I felt the trial portions glossed over those facts, outside of the prosecutor’s opening statement - and you really hear minimal details of any other cases against him outside of the Florida sorority murders.

The people I know who watched this or want to watch it aren't true crime fans - they’re watching it because Zac Efron is in it. Most of them are in their 20s or 30s and were children when Bundy was on death row, if they were alive at all - the only references they know of him are the general ones that have permeated popular culture. Especially when they choose to cast someone like Zac Efron in the title role, who has a large fan following in a younger demographic that wasn’t even alive during a time Bundy was, I thought the filmmaker had more of a responsibility to avoid another Deliberate Stranger situation - I think too many people are still going to romanticize Bundy from this. 

[Racj82]

3 hours ago, MsNewsradio said:

I’m not saying they need to depict his crimes in graphic detail (I’m not looking for them to ‘Criminal Minds’ this), but I know multiple people who watched this this weekend who didn’t have any background on Ted Bundy and didn’t come away with any sort of real understanding of the true depth of his depravity.  And the reality is - what he did was terrible. What he did was graphic. He raped, murdered, dismembered, and often had sex with the corpses of his victims. He truly was the definition of evil. People should be uncomfortable walking away from a film about him. If anything I felt the trial portions glossed over those facts, outside of the prosecutor’s opening statement - and you really hear minimal details of any other cases against him outside of the Florida sorority murders.

The people I know who watched this or want to watch it aren't true crime fans - they’re watching it because Zac Efron is in it. Most of them are in their 20s or 30s and were children when Bundy was on death row, if they were alive at all - the only references they know of him are the general ones that have permeated popular culture. Especially when they choose to cast someone like Zac Efron in the title role, who has a large fan following in a younger demographic that wasn’t even alive during a time Bundy was, I thought the filmmaker had more of a responsibility to avoid another Deliberate Stranger situation - I think too many people are still going to romanticize Bundy from this. 

I get what you are saying but it's going to happen anyway. Things have changed but not that much. People are still willing to turn a blind eye because someone is hot! Watching the real broadcast of women fawning over him and saying things like he may kill me but he's so hot and dangerous just makes my skin crawl. 

I think cast Efron is deliberate. Not just because he's a really good actor, but people falling right into the trap of falling for this guy with all the evidence against him means that people need some serious self awareness.

[Cherrio]

I will be curious to read more of what folks who have followed this case closely and for so long have to say,

Being from that group, I thought the movie was terrible. The movie had no depth, just one choppy scene to another.

Bundy did show part of his dark and troubled personality to his friends and family numerous times.   When he was ordered to have a psych exam after being convicted of kidnap in Utah, Dr. Al Carsisle dug deep and interviewed family, friends and people who worked with him. There were many who told troubling tales.  

I did like the documentary however.

[ellenr33]

This film was actually filmed in my hometown. The scene where he jumped out the window at the court house where he was running through the streets was filmed in Main Strasse in Covington with some mountains edited in the background. The scene where he was in the diner was filmed at this little restaurant called The Pepper Pod so I thought all that was cool. I thought it was a really good movie and I liked that it didn't show all the violence because with every account I read everybody said that nobody suspected him. It bugs me in movies when characters don't age though so Lily Collins and Zac Efron looking the same throughout the movie bugged me. And what happened to Haley Joel Osment ten years ago I thought he'd be a huge star. He's looking rough! 

[Anela]

On 5/9/2019 at 10:42 AM, Racj82 said:

I get what you are saying but it's going to happen anyway. Things have changed but not that much. People are still willing to turn a blind eye because someone is hot! Watching the real broadcast of women fawning over him and saying things like he may kill me but he's so hot and dangerous just makes my skin crawl. 

I think cast Efron is deliberate. Not just because he's a really good actor, but people falling right into the trap of falling for this guy with all the evidence against him means that people need some serious self awareness.

Yes, that kind of thing has bugged me for years. "He's hot, so he can do whatever he wants." I doubt they would actually think that, if anything happened to them in reality. 

I haven't watched the documentary, because I had nightmares years ago, after reading a book about him. I stopped paying attention to most "true crime", and tried to stay away from things like Law and Order SVU, don't watch much criminal minds, etc. Because I don't need to be reminded that there are scary people in the world. I just happened to have bad nightmares starting again, about men breaking in to murder me and my family, when the documentary premiered. 

I figured this movie would just be another pretty people movie, trying to cash in on it being so long since Bundy was executed. I haven't watched it yet. I don't know if I will. 

[Racj82]

I've actually been listening to a podcast about Bundy after watching the movie. I wanted to learn more about the situation.

It's caller killer vibes. The women on the bad could be a bit to giggly at times but they really did their research. 

He was one truly disgusting man. You have to look further to see how truly vile he was. If you want to know. I can understand not wanting to though. It's really brutal.

Among other things, they didn't lean on the woman before all this got started and how it seems like he saw her in his victims. He for the most part had a type and it wasn't really that different from her. He had real issues with how he was perceived and what class he was in. He wanted to be upper class. He and Liz basically had a open relationship the whole time they were together. He slept with lots of women when he went away for school. It came out during his trial as well as how he could be aggressive in bed but so kind out of it.

There is just a lot to go over. Not that I'm clamoring for this but you could never fit it all into a movie and do it justice.

[AllyB]

I agree with the criticisms of the movie. Having read that it would be from Elizabeth's point of view I thought the movie would show their relationship progress from what would have felt like a good relationship to Ted's behaviour as he started to commit the murders. To Elizabeth's suspicion as the clues started to point to him. To her horror and guilt as he was arrested. How he gaslighted her, the abuse that was present in their relationship, the time he did try to killer when she slept. I think Zac Effron would have had plenty of room to do the same amazing job he did but the movie would have had a stronger structure and told a more interesting, human story. One where the audience would have experienced the horror of his actions without any need for gratuitous graphic depictions but where we could feel the consequences of the awful things he did through the eyes of someone who had loved him.

[Calvada]

Incredibly full of errors - this is based on real events that have been chronicled very thoroughly, so there is no reason for all the mistakes.