Well before documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s 2019 Netflix
drama Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil and Vile, the story of infamous American
serial killer Ted Bundy had been dramatized a few times over including twice
more in 2021 and before in 2009.One
which slipped through the cracks and languished in Blockbuster Video
straight-to-video exclusivity before being rescued from oblivion by Vinegar
Syndrome is Forbidden Zone actor turned writer-director Matthew Bright’s
2002 biographical horror film Ted Bundy, arguably among the most
shocking and extreme films to ever reside on the New Release shelves at the now
defunct video store empire.For having a
no porn and no NC-17/X rated policy, they let this unrated gut cruncher go out
for rent without issue and it easily goes above and beyond where most actual NC-17
movies dared to traverse.
Though loosely based on the facts, the names are changed to
protect the innocent and the film’s framing image opens on Ted Bundy (character
actor Michael Reilly Burke) looking at himself in the mirror practicing
introducing himself to prospective victims he intends to rape and murder.Initially functioning as a peeping tom, he gradually
works his way up to actually killing people, all under the nose of his
unassuming girlfriend Lee (Boti Bliss) who isn’t sure about his increasingly
sadomasochistic sex games he keeps introducing to her.Over time he is eventually apprehended but
not before escaping two more times to commit even more murders.All the while Matthew Bright’s film
co-written by Stephen Johnston stays trained nonjudgmentally on Ted Bundy,
pulling no punches while neither glamorizing nor sanitizing the brutalities in
question.The result is a hard-nosed,
sleazy filthy character study that regards the mind behind the monster as still
mysterious. Vicious, mean and content to plunge deeper into darkness,
Matthew Bright’s film of Ted Bundy though tightly budgeted and plainly
exploitative pushes beyond our comfort zones into perversely twisted territory
without compromise.Take for instance a
montage set to cheery upbeat music of him on a killing spree with a brief
snippet of him sleeping in a barn next to decomposing corpses.The film goes all the way with more than a few
brutal rape, murder and even necrophilia scenes, with realistic practical
effects work rendered by legendary artists Tom Savini (cameoing as a detective)
and Greg Nicotero.Sharply edited by
Paul Heiman with more than a few wild tricks showing off the killer’s kleptomania
and eventual carelessness with his murder sprees, we’re whisked into the killer’s
headspace with our only out of this nightmare being when he finally does face
execution.
For such a tightly budgeted otherwise straight-to-video
film, Ted Bundy is handsomely shot by Sonja Rom and the keyboard synth score
by Kennard Ramsey appropriately augments the grisly proceedings that
follow.While an ensemble piece with the
actresses playing the victims going above and beyond the call of duty in what
they’re asked to do, this is primarily Michael Reilly Burke’s show who doesn’t
quite look like the real Ted Bundy but manages to convey his sociopathy
extremely well.Looking a bit like
Christopher Reeve if he were playing an evil Superman, Burke makes Ted
Bundy somehow or another attractive, charismatic and even personable which
makes his Jekyll/Hyde transformation into a misogynistic serial murderer all
the more startling when it finally does happen. Though granted some limited theatrical runs, this is mostly
known as a home video film that came out on Blockbuster Video shelves thanks to
First Look Media and British film label Tartan Films.Without making much of a mark at the box
office before playing to the Blockbuster Exclusive crowd who likely didn’t know
the depth of depravity this thing would plunge into, Ted Bundy was met
almost immediately with mixed if not controversial responses.Some critics praised the film’s off kilter
mixture of drama and black humor while other more renowned critics like Jack
Mathews wrote it off as pure exploitation.
While definitely in the latter category, it nevertheless
doesn’t make a spectacle of the murders and keeps things down to trying to
probe this defective mindset that resulted in the deaths of several innocent
people. Whatever the case, the folks at
Vinegar Syndrome have recently began showing love to Matthew Bright’s work and
granted it a 4K restoration. Seen now,
the film has lost none of its spiked brass knuckled punch some twenty years
later. Sidestepping the allure of more
mainstream serial killer films of recent years and going for a down-and-dirty
meat and potatoes approach to this sick and depraved tale, Matthew Bright’s Ted
Bundy does not play nice or safe but rather gives us the cold hard truth
while leaving enough room for us to make our own judgments about this strange
impenetrable monster.
