Just watched this film on Netflix. It received mediocre reviews so I was surprised how good that it was, and from reading a few of them I think I know why it rated so low with some.

First off, Zac Efron is perfect as Bundy. He is what anchors this film. He nailed Bundy's weird charisma.

I think the reviewers felt that the movie let Bundy off on how sadistic and depraved his actions were. One said this "sanitized" him. But that's not the point of the film. It was to understand his allure. The man drew so many people to him. His girlfriend (two actually) refused to even believe he was a monster even as the evidence piled up. And that's what this film is touching upon how a person could so easily manipulate some on one hand in thinking he's a good person, and on the other be a brutal serial killer.

In fact I think it's even more chilling to see this portrayal then just focusing on the violence. There is a very effective scene too where his ex-girlfriend confronted him finally while he was on death row. I won't give the specifics of that scene because I think it adeptly handles the violence aspect too.

John Malkovich is also very good as the judge and Lily Collins too as his primary girlfriend, and the one person Bundy couldn't let go, for whatever reason.

This film is definitely worth watching.

 

I didn't realize that Bundy had escaped from prison a few times too. I had to read up on his story a bit after watching it. If this hadn't been a real life story the script calling for the guy jumping out of a courthouse window would've been called unbelievable. It's all so surreal.