Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

I'm not as into the whole serial killer craze as much as everyone else is. 

For starters, it's old news, which is partially why I have a hard time in my busy schedule going back and learning about these monsters. I won't act like I'm high above being interested in all the gory details and what not; there is something super interesting about the mentality of these individuals and how/when something went so wrong. 

But yeah...just generally haven't paid much attention to them despite them playing a key role in a lot of great storytelling examples. 

Ted Bundy is one such individual that - other than knowing he was a good looking, charismatic killer, I had no idea about his life, what he actually did, etc. I think that's an important distinction to make before I review Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which is just an obnoxious movie title by the way. It later makes sense in the context of a particular scene, but damn...I'm not typing that out more than once. 

Anyway, given that I knew almost nothing about Ted Bundy and his infamous murders, I found Extremely Wicked to be really interesting purely from the perspective that I was learning about a lot of this for the first time. Thinking a bit more critically about the information it presents, Extremely Wicked likely doesn't have much "new" information or insight into Bundy or his atrocious acts. Additionally - and this came as a surprise to me - the film is hardly violent or gruesome as you'd expect one about Bundy's life to be. 

I'm not entirely sure if I have a problem that it didn't go into all the visceral scenes that Bundy was a part of across his 30+ murders, but it does make for a shockingly tame film. With all the violence taken out and us plopped right into the middle of Bundy's life, we're treated mostly to his early romance with Liz (Lily Collins), his early arrests by police, and his court trials. The film ends up being as much about Liz as it is about Ted and her guilt throughout the whole ordeal until Bundy was finally sentenced to death in Florida. For some I suppose this will be disappointing, but I found the film's approach to portraying Efron's Bundy as "wrongly accused" a unique, but dangerous angle to take. Without having seen the horrific incidents - and especially because I was new to the whole saga - you almost start to believe that Bundy was innocent (or at least Efron's version of him). Or I was beginning to wonder if Bundy had split personalities and a part of him truly believed himself to be innocent. It speaks volumes to how charismatic and convincing Bundy was in real life and was clearly effective for someone like me, but I imagine it's immensely frustrating for those who are more familiar with the details. 

Not a creepy picture at all...

Despite an odd angle to approach the film, the performances at its core are really strong with some solid casting all around. Efron is the obvious star here and I'm happy to see him having a good career and getting good roles; I've always liked him. His portrayal of Bundy is likely not that far off from how he is in real life to a certain extent - confident, smooth-talking, etc. So it's probably not a huge stretch, but he still does a good job here emphasizing how easy it was for Bundy to get away with things. Collins is equally as good, particularly later in the film, as is most of the rest of the supporting cast including "Is that Haley Joel Osment!?!"

Efron on a new episode of Big Bang?

Otherwise, Extremely Wicked is very much just a "fine" movie. I couldn't quite put a finger on it, but something felt off with the pacing and editing and near the middle/end, things become pretty similar and start to blend. The courtroom scenes start to present a lot of information that seems to be coming out of no where because the film didn't take us to the evening of particular murders and/or we never get much time with the prosecutors to understand their approach or angle. Again, a lot of this was done intentionally to have all focus on how manipulative Bundy was and almost paint him as the anti-hero (to make a point, not be controversial). 

To Extremely Wicked's credit, it got me interested in Bundy a little more and I know there's a related Netflix documentary special that likely provides a lot more insight. In the meantime, Extremely Wicked and blah blah Vile ends up being a watchable film because of its core performances but I can't help but feeling that a truly great film about one of the world's most notorious monsters would have a lot larger scale and gravitas in the final product. For now we just get a "good" version. 

CONS

• The decision to focus so much on Efron's Bundy and only his POV (and Liz's to a certain extent) creates an interesting approach that works in some ways but results in a film where we feel cheated out of a lot more insight
• Fairly tame given the subject matter
• The pacing feels off
• Likely not much new information for those familiar or part of the serial killer craze

PROS

• Really strong central performances from Collins and Efron. Efron's likely isn't a stretch for him, but drives home the point that Bundy was a sly SOB
• Interesting subject matter and a unique take on Bundy's story
• Feels icky in the manner that you realize you're almost "rooting" for Bundy because we're only presented his POV without a lot of other details
• Points for Colorado scenes!

Rath's Review Score | 7/10