Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) Review

"I better get back to planning my escape, here."

-Ted Bundy

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a biographical film about infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy (Zac Efron), as the law catches up to him and he faces his trial of the century.  It's primary focus is on Bundy's girlfriend, Liz Kendall (Lilly Collins), as she comes to terms with the truth about what Ted has done.

What Works:

By far the best part of this film is Zac Efron.  He is terrifyingly good as Bundy.  To see this guy go from being in High School Musical to this is crazy impressive.  Efron nails the role.  He's charming 95% of the time, but every so often, we get a peak behind the curtain at the monster beneath the surface.  The look Efron manages to get in his eyes is extraordinary.

I am a big fan of legal thrillers and a good chunk of this movie takes place in a courtroom.  I love all the legal aspects of the film and watching Bundy take such an active role in his defense is very interesting.  I especially love the conflicts Bundy gets into with his lawyer, Dan Dowd (Brian Geraghty).

This story is shown to us primarily from Liz's point of view, so we really don't see any of the heinous acts Bundy commits.  We never really see Ted the monster.  We only get the charming guy Liz is in love with.  This makes it easy to forget that Ted is such a monster and makes it easier for us to sympathize with Liz.

Finally, the final confrontation between Liz and Ted is extremely well done.  It's the first time we see anything violent from Ted and the reveal to Liz is truly fantastic.  It's an effective and emotional way to end the film and is my favorite sequence from the movie.

What Sucks:

As I mentioned above, Liz is the person we are really seeing this story through, but it doesn't always work.  During the second act of the film, Liz is almost entirely sidelined.  We only get to see her following the news on TV and reacting to it.  An interesting protagonist, this does not make.

I also had some issues with the editing.  The movie cuts back and forth between scenes far too often.  The biggest offender is the opening when we see Liz and Ted meet for the first time as well as them meeting in prison for the last time.  Stay in one scene and let it play out.  Cutting back and forth so much is jarring.

Finally, the pacing wasn't great.  The first half of the film wasn't super interesting and I really wanted to get into the gruesome parts of the story.  I was engaged from Ted's second escape and on, but everything before that could have used some stronger pacing.

Verdict:

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a solid, if flawed, film.  Zac Efron is brilliant as Ted Bundy, the legal aspects are interesting, the narrative choices make it easy to understand where Liz is coming from, and the final confrontation is fantastic, but Liz is sidelined for too much of the film and there some editing and pacing issues, but it has still got it going on.

 7/10: Good