Directed by: Joe Berlinger
Starring: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Jeffrey Donovan, Kaya Scoledario, James Hetfield, Haley Joel Osment, John Malkovich, Jim Parsons
The words in the title are spoken by the trial judge who presided over Ted Bundy's Florida double murder conviction which sent him to death row. Bundy was executed in 1989, but not before confessing to thirty murders over ten years in Washington, Utah, and Colorado. There may have been more women slaughtered by Bundy, but the true number will never be known. What makes Extremely Wicked unique is that it portrays an infamous serial killer without showing his crimes, except for one at the conclusion. We are no less shocked when the gruesome details emerge of the horrendous murders, but when we first meet Ted, he seems affable, caring, and incapable of such horror. How do such actions reside in the same person? His longtime girlfriend Liz Kendall (Collins) continually chooses to believe Ted even after he is convicted of attempted kidnapping in Utah and then charged with murder in Colorado, while being a suspect in numerous killings in Washington.
The movie stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, one of the most notorious serial killers ever. His Florida trial was broadcast nationwide, and mostly women attended in person to gawk at the handsome suspect. To them, it was like seeing a teen idol in the flesh...crimes be damned, he's eye candy. Bundy's looks, charm, and intelligence (he was a law student) made it easy for him to lure victims. He's just so darn nice and unassuming. Why wouldn't someone feel safe in his presence? He's a clean-cut, All-American young man. But how ugly he is.
There is never a scene in which Efron portrays an obvious psychopath. His eyes don't bulge, he doesn't scream, he stays in control of himself. Efron doesn't overact, which makes him all the scarier. There is something lacking in the eyes, though, and that is where the performance lies. They are opaque, and not windows to Bundy's soul, which he doesn't have anyway. Bundy seems close to perfect on the surface, which makes Liz err on the side of Ted even when confronted with mounting evidence against him. It is our natural instinct as a viewer to want to talk some sense into her, but we know the history, and she doesn't. Once Bundy escapes from a Colorado jail while awaiting trial on murder charges, Liz tries to find a way to leave Ted behind, even taking up with a shy co-worker (Osment), who is sweet on her. Ted keeps calling her, but we wonder why he bothers. We also speculate as to why Liz wasn't made the 31st victim. As Liz battles with the bottle, is she dealing with survivor's guilt, or something worse?
Liz is not the only woman Bundy effectively bamboozles. A sycophantic former co-worker named Carole Ann Boone (Scoledario) runs into him first in Colorado and then in Florida, and she is enthralled with him. She completely believes in his innocence, or just simply doesn't want to believe in his guilt. Carole Ann pathetically sits behind him in court, and at one point agrees to marry him on the witness stand. While on death row, she announces to Bundy she is pregnant with his child. Carole Ann is quite frightening herself, not because she is a murderer, but she so blindly follows Bundy to the edge. Would Liz have done the same thing if he didn't go on the lam?
Besides Efron, Extremely Wicked is buoyed by strong supporting performances, including Jim Parsons as the Florida DA who is none too happy to have the trial televised, and John Malkovich as Judge Edward Cowart, who manages to avoid being manipulated by the ever-manipulative Bundy. He takes on the attitude of a witness watching a traffic accident unfold before his eyes and accepts that he is powerless to stop it. When sentencing Bundy, he is not without sympathy, mostly at Bundy's potential being wasted in the service of serial killing, and he delivers his speech as if it wasn't the first or last time he would have to make it. It's a measured, quietly nuanced performance.
Extremely Wicked haunts the viewer because while we are witnessing Ted Bundy's legal escapades, there are victims dead and buried, and in some cases hacked to pieces, in four states (maybe more). The hideous nature of the crimes remains omnipresent, and their unheard screams of horror will not let us rest. The movie makes a sensitive and powerful statement by not showing us the grisly murders. We are not here to watch murder porn. We see one, and it is muted just enough so we get the point of its horror without wretched excess. The world knows Ted Bundy and what he did. It is a chilling, unsettling story of a man who finally gets what he deserves for killing those who didn't deserve to meet such a terrible fate.
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