Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - Zac saves it

Yes, the title has been claimed to be a bit 'click-baity.' You're probably thinking you're going to be watching the most hardcore and depraved film ever made.  Well... you're not, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth a watch.

It's the - sort of - biography of real life seventies serial killer, Ted Bundy.  And, if you're interested in his life then this is definitely going to interest you.  Plus it has the - quite bankable - Zac Efron as the titular killer, Bundy and this is where the film starts to draw criticism from some people.  They say that, because of Efron's natural good looks and charm, he draws quite a lot of sympathy towards the crazed killer.  This may be true, however it's also worth noting that the real life Bundy was also considered attractive and it was his natural charm that allowed him such easy access to his unsuspecting victims, so, in my opinion, the casting is spot on.

In fact, it's Efron that steals the show in his portrayal of the psychopath and this is definitely one for his acting C.V.  Now, back to the title again.  I've watched other films about Ted Bundy and they were pretty strong stuff, all choosing to show his hideous kills and various crimes.  In 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,' unless I'm much mistaken, you don't actually see a single kill.  Whereas most other biopics start with the crimes and progress to show Bundy's capture and imprisonment etc, this one pretty much starts off with him getting arrested and the rest is the subsequent trial.  Therefore, anyone expecting gore and violence will be sorely let down by the title.

The rest of the cast all play their parts well, including Lily Collins as Bundy's conflicted (main) love interest, plus John Malkovich shows up in the final third as a judge in Bundy's trial.  From what I understand the film-makers have done their best to portray the events pretty accurately, even going as far as to recreate photos from Bundy's life and also copy parts of the dialogue from public appearances word for word.

So, as I say, if you're into real life killers and/or Zac Efron then you're in for a real treat here.  However, if you're looking for kills and gore then you're not going to find it here.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that