Review by Peter Syslo
TED BUNDY (2002) is a biopic of the serial killer, Ted Bundy. For some reason (I can’t exactly place my finger on it), this film bothered me a bit - in a good way. When I sit down to watch a movie I want to be entertained, first and foremost. If it’s a horror movie, my second expectation is to be bothered, disturbed, or “horrified” in some way. TED BUNDY fulfilled both expectations and it gets higher marks for affecting me.
TED BUNDY is directed by Matthew Bright and is written by Stephen Johnston and Bright. The film stars Michael Reilly Burke, Boti Bliss, and Tiffany Shepis.
The movie follows the prolific years of Bundy’s killing spree, during which he preyed upon various women. There are numerous scenes in which Bundy (Burke) targets, stalks, kills, and rapes his victims; the film depicts the double life he leads. Aside from being a killer, he also has a steady girlfriend (Boti) and he is a university student. The film goes through all of the events leading up to his capture (including his two escapes) and it all ends with a quite-lengthy scene involving details about his death by electric chair.
This is the type of film that gives a person that “dirty” feeling that is a mix of nausea and the need for a shower. It isn’t overly graphic either; I think that it was just the uncontrollable, twisted nature of Bundy that bothered me. Also, his charm was well-depicted in the film and that seemed to sicken me as well. It’s a testament to the complete idiocy of women who will “do anything to please their man” and who will fall for any guy’s bullsh*t as long as he’s good-looking (yeah, guys are guilty of that same thing with women, too). The whole message conveyed (very well) by the film is that humans are a materialistic f***ing breed of animal – people are concerned mainly with appearances and do not wish to live in the world of reality (when Bundy was finally incarcerated, female groupies would visit him – I never understood that – sick and twisted).
Cutting to the chase: TED BUNDY drove its message home and it shows the fatal human flaw of judging a book by its cover. The opening of the film didn’t quite grab me and it seemed like a bad “Americas Most Wanted” re-enactment, but after the first 15 minutes it did pick up steam. There is little blood in the film but it is not meant to be a gore fest – most of the violence is sexual in nature, aside from Bundy’s signature of clubbing women over the head and dragging them into his iconic VW Beetle. I didn’t like Bright’s performance at times – there was something missing – but he did bring forth the Bundy charm and manipulation. The acting overall, was decent but there were some incidences of “corny” dialogue. For example, his girlfriend Lee is sitting with her new man at the end of the film and she says, “I can’t believe I didn’t kn ow, I was with him all that time” (c’mon!). Though, one of the best parts of the film was the build up to his execution and it was done in such a way as to show that he got a “taste of his own medicine”. However, the very end with the executioner is really corny and was also a “c’mon!” moment. But, if you like behind-the-killer films or you like serial killer biopics then you might like it. I give TED BUNDY an 8/10.