“Extremely Wicked…” – Movie Review

As the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival winds down, I attended the New York Premiere of the new Netflix production, “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile”, starring Zac Efron and Lily Collins.

Synopsis

When a young woman realizes that her fiancé is serial killer Ted Bundy, will she wind up as one of his victims?

Story

In 1969, Liz (Collins) was a young single mother who found it difficult to find dates in the Seattle town where she lived.  One night, while hanging out at a bar frequented by college students, she met a handsome and charismatic young law student by the name of Ted Bundy (Efron).  The two were immediately attracted to each other and when he didn’t mind that she had a daughter, that was certainly a plus; once he showed himself to be a good caretaker for her little girl, she immediately deemed him perfect.  Before too long, they became a couple and Ted moved in with her.

As things would turn out, Ted seemed to be a little too perfect.  Despite being attentive to his law studies, he would mysteriously disappear from time to time and had occasional run-ins with the police that seemed to be more than merely a coincidence.  Liz, quite understandably, was starting to become suspicious.  Ted is being picked up by the police in different states like Utah and Colorado and it always seems as though it’s for the same reason:  young women are reported missing, beaten or even dead.  So far, Ted has been able to avoid prison, but it seems his luck is about to run out.

Ted runs off to Florida and before too long, he is arrested as a suspect in the murder of a couple of co-eds.  With Liz having ended their relationship, Ted now finds himself being courted by Carole Ann (Kaya Scodelario), a former co-worker of his who has long had a crush on him.  Carole Ann upends her life to visit Ted in the Florida prison where he’s being held; with the case gaining greater visibility, she acts as his messaging surrogate, giving interviews to the media about Ted’s innocence.  But when it comes time for Ted’s trial, will he finally be found guilty? 

Review

If you are considering watching “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile”, the good news is that you don’t have to worry about the movie showing inordinate amounts of gore and violence.  In fact, there is virtually none of that. There are allusions to such acts in the courtroom case near the end of the film, but that’s about as close as they get. This is a good choice by the filmmakers to avoid sensationalism.  The bad news, however, is that the motion picture is a bit on the dull side; while it sometimes attempts a psychological profile of its subject, it can occasionally be a tad tedious. This is not to say that excessive scenes of gore would have made it less so, just that the picture as it currently stands is arguably less interesting than the killer himself.

The main reason to see “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile” is the performances.  Specifically, Zac Efron is disturbingly convincing as Bundy; between his good looks, swagger and easy manner, it seems less an interpretation than a clone.  As a single mother trying to hold her life together, Lily Collins’ portrayal of Liz unraveling reveals an aspect of the Bundy story mostly unfamiliar to the general public.  Kaya Scodelario, as the nerdy fan-girl Carole Ann, is, in her own way, equally jarring as Bundy himself. All of that said, perhaps the two best performances are cameos: one by Jim Parsons and the other by John Malkovich.  Parsons plays the Florida prosecutor and is comedically uncomfortable with the trial being on television. Malkovich, however, steals every scene he is in as the judge in the Florida trial who gets off some gems (note that the dialog in the courtroom scenes is a transcript from the actual trial rather than the creation of the screenwriter).

Following the screening, there was an interview with director Joe Berlinger and some of the cast members.  Berlinger said that the entire shoot (which took place in Kentucky) took a total of 28 days and no overtime was required.  He added that his intent for making the movie the way he did – telling it through Liz’s perspective – was because he wanted it to be a story about betrayal and deception.  The question he wanted to film to answer was, “What was Bundy like when he was not killing?”. He compared the Bundy case to the scandals involving Catholic priests: they appear normal in most cases, but hide secrets that are extremely dark.