Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) (Film Review)

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) As an introduction, I’ll put up an interesting review I found: “Ted Bundy as seen by othersTo appreciate this film, you need to know Ted’s story well, from his birth to his death. Only then can you fully appreciate the film. Zac Efron is very good in the role of Ted, I can’t remember anyone doing that in the past. Very good indeed. A must-see film. Be warned that some of the images do not correspond to reality, although 85% of the film is true to life. It’s good that the real names of the victims are mentioned, but not their real faces.”

I don’t totally agree. We don’t really need to know more. This film also serves to uncover the essential facts about this high-profile criminal. In fact, his trial was the first to be shown on TV. For the most part, the actors bear little resemblance to the characters they portray. The one who bears the closest resemblance is Kaya Scodelario, who is always excellent in her roles.

Zac Efron is great in this role. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed him as much anywhere else. But I love him in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Happy New Year (2011). Haven’t seen Baywatch (2017) yet, but given that he’s looking more and more like David Hasselhoff, I think it’s a good choice of actor!

Otherwise, it’s great to see John Malkovich, Haley Joel Osment (a bit of a hothead here!) and Jim Parsons (still the same guy!). As for Lily Collins, she’s clearly not the best actress in the world. Everywhere I see her, I get the impression that plenty of other actresses could have played her part. So far, I haven’t found anything outstanding about her. In the film Spotlight (2015), at the end of the film we saw a long list of all the places where there had been sex scandals.

Here, we see a list of Bundy’s victims. We see snippets with the real people at the end. We see the real Bundy speaking and saying phrases that we heard during the film. It’s all very well done, very well directed. I didn’t see the 1h 50mn go by. I was gripped the whole time. One person said to me: ‘I hate people, that’s why I love serial killers! I just hope for her sake that she doesn’t end up like them!

My Rating