Review: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Joe Berlinger, 2019)

Alex joins Raquel on Drive-Thru Cinema for a chat on true crime and a review of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

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Synopsis

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend Liz, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.

Expectations (00:21)

This is what we hoped for before watching the film!

Raquel: What I would really like from this film is to give us just breathtaking performances…

Alex: I’m pretty much just basing it off YOU and Dirty John, which suggests I’ll be creeped out by it.

Review (10:04)

This is what we thought of the film. Score is out of five stars.

Raquel (★★★★): I love the way how it was constructed. The characters and performances were really good. The the dialogue was really good. And in the end, obviously, like they put clips from the actual Ted Bundy and you can see how they’ve, how they’ve pretty much nailed it.

Alex (★★★): I quite liked it. It was creepy. Yes. But I think the whole issue of oh my god they’re making serial killers and stalkers, sexy, I think didn’t come through, which I liked. I don’t think they romanticised him. I think they just reflected historically what he was supposed to be.

What did you think of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile? Leave your comments below!

Transcript

Raquel: Hello, and welcome to a brand new episode of growth through cinema. I’m your host who’s not driving today, Raquel, and I’m joined by Alex. Hey, Alex.

Alex :Hello!

Okay, first of all, the reason why we’re not driving is because Avengers: Endgame has taken over listings pretty much. And there wasn’t much at the cinema However, it’s 2019. And in a way, the cinema is not the only way of watching films. So we’re going to be watching, and its really long title, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the film about Ted Bundy that stars Zac Efron, and that has been, I don’t know, premiered, on Netflix in the US and through Sky in the UK. So that’s what we’re doing tonight. We’re just saying in having a chill night. We’re definitely we’re definitely the cheating the format of this show tonight. But at least take advantage of the nice sound you’re going to get. Yeah, so Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile…

Sounds like it’s coming from a series of unfortunate events.

I think people are just going to start calling it like extremely wicked.

Or just shockingly evil

Maybe just Vile.

That’s the critics’ review

it usually happens with long, long name films, like three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missoury — three billboards.

Yeah.

There’s a bunch. I’m sure everyone will know what we’re talking about. So this film, yeah, it’s been released today. It already has quite good, good good critics, I’d say, mostly from users rather than from, from actual critics, a chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend who refused to believe the truth about him for years. So essentially, have you read anything about Ted Bundy that you have any idea what he was?

As in the actual person not really, no.

Ted Bundy, essentially, he was a serial killer. He used to trick female, well female humans…

Women!

Saying that he he had some like fractures or some physical issues. And then he would like learn them and didn’t just kind of kill them. Which is not very nice. But there’s a bunch of films made about him, which I think it’s Yeah, it does say something. Netflix also released this whole documentary series. So all of these happened between February 1974 and February 1978. So he was he was doing that for four years. And as we said, this other this film on his life is based off a book his girlfriend at the time of the killings, wrote. And apparently, she was quite oblivious to the fact that he was doing all these things,

which is quite scary in itself, to be honest.

Yeah. So um, when I heard about this film, the first thing I thought of was, it reminded me of Dirty John, for anyone who’s not seen it Dirty John. So it’s also true crime. And there is a podcast, there’s a TV series, and there’s a documentary on Dirty John, who was suppose he was quite different than Ted Bundy in that I think Ted Bundy just had his victim was like just strangers worse there to john the whole thing was I mean, I suppose he wasn’t necessarily…

He was a con artist

Yeah, he was con artist so you’re quite creeped out by that?

Hated it. I mean, I mean, it was very similar to to YOU, which I quite liked. But no, Dirty John. It creeps me out a lot and to be honest, I’m expecting the same from this.

Yeah, so obviously this is a true crime biographical drama. I don’t know I I’m actually quite curious because there were a lot of critiques saying that these films shouldn’t shouldn’t get made.

I mean, there’s a bit of a crazy at the moment between Dirty John, YOU, this, apparently. And I think it’s mostly about why would you make serial killers sexy? And I can’t remember the guys name but the actor who plays what’s his name from YOU?

Oh, I don’t know. Anyway, the guy who plays

The guy knew the guy who was the bad guy. People were coming up with some some quite suggestive comments on Twitter and saying about how much they adored him. And the actual on Twitter was like that, that that’s probably a bad thing. But it’s it’s a crazy at the moment. So having Zac Efron play Ted Bundy is I can see why they thought it was controversial.

Yeah, and then the whole with saxophonist, I am so surprised. And mainly because I obviously like I knew Zac Efron from High School Musical. And I think he like as an actor has come such a long way. I absolutely adored his performance in The Greatest Showman, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. And it’s something like I wasn’t expecting him to be able to do based off of just like Disney stuff. So I think that was a pleasant surprise. And obviously, I think this is a really deep sort of role. And I I am expecting quite a lot out of it. And then the the actress who plays well, surely his girlfriend is Lily Collins. So Lily Collins is, is she’s a wonderful actress. She’s been in mostly kind of independent stuff. So she’s all she I suppose she gets her name from she’s a daughter of Phil Collins. So so there’s that she was on a film a Netflix film called To The Bone in which brilliant performance love the film. She plays a girl with anorexia. That was a really compelling performance. And if the film if she can do this on Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, I think I think it will be absolutely amazing. So do you have any expectations for it?

I’m pretty much just basing it off YOU and Dirty John, which suggests I’ll be creeped out by it.

Do you not want to be creeped out?

Not really. But I’ve been co opted into this. So we’ll see.

Yes, I suppose. And what I would really like from this film is to give us just breathtaking performances. It’s already got a 7.3 out of 10 on IMDB. So I mean, given it’s been out for literally a day that doesn’t say much. And but yeah, we’ll we’ll have to see what we’ll have to see what comes out of this. We’re going to play the trailer for a film now as we always do. But just before we do that, I’d like to draw your attention to a another film podcast by my friend David Rosen. It’s called piercing it together. And it’s quite an interesting movie podcast, which basically they look at the antecedents and the inspiration for films they try and kind of guess what they based films off, but like you’ll hear more about it on their short promo followed by a trailer and then just stick around for the review.

Welcome back to Drive-Thru Cinema. We just finished watching - what is it called again? Extremely shockingly

vile.

Yes, Ted Bundy film with Zac Efron. So and, Alex, what did you think overall?

I quite liked it. It was creepy. Yes. But I think the whole issue of oh my god they’re making serial killers and stalkers, sexy, I think didn’t come through, which I liked. I don’t think they romanticized him. I think they just reflected historically what he was supposed to be.

See, I think I’m quite the opposite. Like, you can definitely see that. A lot of why his case became such a big deal. And, obviously was because women just kept falling for him.

You know? Yeah. As in he was in. He was like that. But it’s not as though they were romanticizing him to us, the viewer like they would in you, for example.

Yeah, I feel like with this one, definitely. But anyway, like, I really liked how the film was made to be like a courtroom crime type thing. And you never really well, you see, in the end, like you from the beginning, you know, that he’s been he’s been sentence like, is the first scene and obviously, there’s so many things that have been done about Ted Bundy, like, you know, what’s going to happen. However, the film just picks a very specific moment, which, like, granted was the most important moment of the trial and everything. And it just goes off that on courtroom just you see what everyone else saw. So, watching it, I felt like, I kind of, I even found myself sort of rooting for him, even though I knew what happened. But like, if they it wasn’t known that he was actually the serial killer, like on that evidence, like, I can definitely see how the people back then thought he might have not been until he confessed.

Yeah, I mean, so you don’t get any indication that had been you don’t ever see him go off to the side and where you can’t explain where he’s going or anything like that, really. So as I say, it’s not like, it’s hinting to you that he’s a killer. But it’s just kind of the context of the film, I guess.

Yeah. And the other thing I like, about serious, well, obviously, a lot of it is from the perspective of Liz, Elizabeth, who was Ted’s girlfriend, and the film is largely based on a book she wrote. So we were saying before we started watching the film. So there’s a lot about the relationship and a lot about, like all of that, and is just absolutely amazing. And I think the they’ve captured that you can definitely see, through her eyes, how she saw him. For the most part of the film, I would say, the fact that they they had this perfect relationship, and he would have never guessed that he he was able to do stuff like this is not like we were talking about Dirty John before, like, then he can see like, just people don’t like him. And there’s a lot of suspicion, like Where’d this guy come from? Whereas with this one, like, you can see that Ted, he’s definitely like, he’s he, he does seem and plays a really good part of being a really, really good guy. And one of the parts of like stuck the most is that I think, and the way they portrayed their relationship and their intimacy on screen is probably, obviously, it’s a film. So it’s like, not as it would be in real life exactly. But I feel like it was as close as it could get with all the quirkiness and like this messiness of like, a normal relationship and having those kind of like, intimate moments that aren’t necessarily sexual. But also, just, I don’t know, just having a laugh and stuff like that. And I felt like Wow, I’ve never really, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film where they captured is in such a, I know, like, such a real way without making it loose is magic.

Yeah, none that I can think of, really, it just felt. And I suppose that’s because it has come from, from a book from somebody who’s experiences rather than kind of fiction and tropes and, and so on. But yeah, it felt… I kind of get what you mean about rooting for him a bit. Not in, again, not in this kind of fictional, almost romantic way, but just because of the evidence we’re given.

Yeah. And that said, I think, um, well, yeah, I really, I really did like the film. And I thought the performances in general, were absolutely spot on. I kept forgetting that he was Zac Efron as well, because he’s, like, obviously, his film is based in the 70s. So you can kind of everyone’s dressed up. Yeah. You know, they look like they’re going to flares. And but, yeah, I will say that his performance was absolutely amazing. And I really, really liked it. Lily Collins’ performance was also really good. You there’s, there’s twist, we’re not going to spoil it, but there’s a twist towards the end. I you can absolutely not see it coming. It’s just like, Whoa, just when you think you know, everything about the film, because it’s, it’s not even expositional, but goes of the premise that you know what’s going on? And so I didn’t feel like it was, I don’t know, like, Yeah, I don’t know. So, um, Alex here, he he’s a law student. So um, what were your thoughts on all the lawyer-y stuff because that’s usually a complained that things aren’t as they are normally in films and TV.

I mean, I don’t know much about the American legal system. I thought it was weird that there was a judge and the jury merged into one. Even if it was a lower court, it was still a kidnapping, or I think that was the kidnapping. Something important, which just seemed odd, but despite it being a courtroom, as you described, it was like a courtroom drama. I don’t think it was that focused on the intricacies of the court. It was just how Ted kind of interacted with the judge, the prosecution, the DA, etc.

Yeah, well, um, yes, I suppose that’s true and that’s, that’s what makes the film so compelling, because obviously, like, he gets a few different judges and different courts, because it’s all over the country. The reason why this case was so important, was because it was the first time to be televised. So I absolutely loved how from the beginning of the film, the TV is always on now, like media is nowadays, like it started back then, with his case being the first one to be put on TV. And him being such an like, on the spotlight, so much, so that the whole country and probably the whole world could see. So it was really interesting to see how they Yeah, showed also that part of like media and how he played such an interesting, an important part, I’d say, so from one to five and one line review, what would you say?

I’d say three. So above average, it was it was compelling. It was interesting. It didn’t romanticize it. It just kind of showed us how people back then would have seen this case.

Yeah, I give it a four I think and I did really like it. I love the way how it was constructed. The characters and performances were really good. The the dialogue was really good. And in the end, obviously, like they put clips from actual Ted Bundy and you can see how they’ve, how they’ve pretty much nailed it. And which is just great. And obviously, like, there’s so much about Ted Bundy though, suppose we’d have to watch all the documentaries in existence and all the books written about that. And deceive, the portrayal was actually accurate because biopics can often, you know, kind of committed that scene of not being very accurate. But I definitely got the feeling that I was there sitting the courtroom kind of knowing, like, and just feeling the same thing everyone was feeling at the same time. And yeah, so that’s been this week’s episode. And watch that home. And so, yeah, we’ll all See you next week, probably to review. films are coming out. Well, we want to do Detective Pikachu. And there are a few others that are being released over the next few days. So hopefully, we’ll get something interesting. But in the meantime, if you like this podcast, do share with everyone and share it on social media. And because you’ll be a massive help and if you really, really like it, do review it. And that’s it. So bye bye.

Thank you