Zac Efron’s Bundy: Untellable Stories

Of all the genres in media, there is perhaps none more captivating than true crime. It’s a morbid fascination, but not a surprising one - is there anything more captivating than the horrifying truth? Media has to reflect the human experience to be relatable while still telling an interesting story, so true crime succeeds by being the perfect embodiment of “truth is stranger than fiction”. Despite the popularity of true crime, however, the genre has its fair share of criticism, as retelling real-life tragedies for the sake of entertainment can easily end up feeling rather offensive and insensitive, either turning the pain of those involved into entertainment or ignoring it outright.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile does, unfortunately, end up falling into this trap as well. A film about Ted Bundy’s capture, trial, and eventual execution, the film's premise was risky from the start as it almost entirely excluded the victims from the narrative, only ever briefly showing them as tearful witnesses or brutalised corpses. The film is at least somewhat self-aware of how inappropriate the choice was, as the last clip before the credits is a list of the names of Bundy’s known victims, finally giving some attention to those who suffered terribly only to be overshadowed by their murderer, but just showing their names, and only showing them at the end, seems to lack a sense of humanity and fails to provoke the tremendous grief that should be felt at the meaningless loss of human life.

The film tried to avoid focusing too much on the perpetrator of the crime by framing Bundy’s story from his girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall’s point of view, offering an interesting perspective that shifts the narrative somewhat. After all, most crime films focus on criminals themselves and some focus on the victims, but few give the spotlight to those having to rationalise the person they loved with the horrific acts they committed. Still, though, this perspective ends up being cast aside halfway through as the film delves into Bundy’s sensational Florida trial. It's almost funny how the film shows the pleasure Bundy derived from the attention of the media and the women who fawned over him without seeming to notice the irony of giving him attention yet again by telling the story in this way - and so Kendall's perspective, underused as it was, fails to save the film from itself.

By no means do I think Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was a bad film. In fact, it conveys Bundy’s infamous charm quite effectively. As someone who was introduced to Zac Efron when he played Troy Bolton in High School Musical, I assumed his performance wouldn't be able to carry the weight of the character and assumed it was the cause of the film's lower ratings. When I watched the film, though, Efron’s performance actually made me understand for the first time what people meant when they described Bundy as charming and disarming. Despite knowing from the start that he was guilty, a part of me still wondered if the film might have a surprise twist where it’s revealed that Bundy was innocent somehow because of how convincing the performance was. As far as capturing who Ted Bundy was and what it was like to watch his trial, the film did a spectacular job.

Yet despite telling the story accurately, the film ultimately feels… off. Perhaps it’s similar to the way the psychopath is off - there’s just enough of a lack of humanity that the whole film falls flat. It isn't the fault of the writers, the actors, or anyone involved in the production, though - rather, I think Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile serves as proof that there are some stories that are simply untellable. Not because telling it will get you “cancelled”, but rather because telling a story that humanises a real person who did such awful things will never sit comfortably with an audience - especially when it simultaneously fails to offer that same humanity to his victims.

Telling a murderer’s story is not an inherently bad thing. Humanising them is even good, as it reminds us both that we don’t always recognise the evil around us and that even the worst among us are still just basic humans rather than some kind of legendary monster. But when telling the story of a real person like Ted Bundy, the cultural discourse makes a humanising character study fall apart. Rather than lending power to the film's message, using a real person like Bundy in the film alienates the audience by challenging their perceptions of him beyond what they can accept, made worse by minimising the stories of real victims. In the end, this results in an awkward experience that makes it difficult to listen to, let alone accept, the humanity that the film wants to communicate.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile's story is not untellable because the words don’t come together or because it was censored in any way - it was untellable because it doesn't suit the audience that exists. There's nothing wrong with the film except its timing, as Bundy's wounds on society are too fresh, with many people today still remembering and feeling the pain he caused. As a result, a film where he is not only humanised but even given the attention he so desperately craved when he was alive sits poorly. If the film had been about a fictional person exactly like Bundy without explicitly being him, showed his story from a different angle, or even just made the effort to highlight his monstrous side as well, the audience might have had an easier time accepting his more human portrayal. As it stands, though, in a world where Bundy is still a very real monster to many, a story that only highlights his human side is simply untellable.