Ted Bundy

source: Ted Bundy

Why? Simply because the Deliverate Stranger was made in 86, and while it has all the investigation, police insight, background and stuf, it shows the MEDIA version of Bundy: Prince Charming with an evil streak. It was until 89 that Bundy confessed to his crimes and also to his method of getting girls into his car: beat them in the back of the head with an iron. So much for prince Charming... Also, Ted was much more normal BEFORE he started killing, that's when he got the prissy girlfriend, got into politics, and all that. This film is right when he starts killing, and at that point he was already showing weirdness all over. Just read The Stranger Beside Me. And even Ann Rule was astonished when Ted confessed to necrophilia, and keeping heads in his apartment, and so on. The film shows precisely that, all that was finally discovered about him just before he was put to death, and contrasts a lot with his previous fame given by the media. Like the lake, he was thought to be unbelievably charming to have convinced TWO girls the same day to go with him. It was later revealed he approached DOZENS of girls with the same line, and most turned him down because he had a crazed gaze in his eyes. And why the upbeat music and casualness to the killings? The film is made from HIS point of view. No background, no police investigation, just him. The Deliverate Stranger already showed that, why repeat? For him, it WAS upbeat and funny and casual, that's why it's shown that way. And why his execution is so somber and horrible, it was for him. Practically EVERYTHING is accurate, minus the victim's names (obvious reasons), the way he's recaptured (to accentuate how powerless he is with LIVE women), and name of his girlfriend. That's it, everything else is Accurate (well, he was missing a baseball cap he wore when exiting the Chi Omega house). Or like Ted's shoplifting antics, he DID that all the time indeed. And the director is the one from Freeway, so don't be surprised it's loaded with sick humor. Takes one to know one...

Matthew Bright's "Ted Bundy" gives us what might contain the best portrayal of a modern serial murderer on film. In the title role, Michael Burke is so revolting and psychopathic, he shows us what the slain and surviving women who met up with Bundy must have seen. His nonstop criminal was a compulsive thief and peeping tom before attempting to take a life for the first time. Ted follows a college gal home from a discotheque and, after he spies on her and masturbates in public while doing so, eventually in a subsequent scene, he steps up to the next level and beats a woman near death (that poor lady apparently survived her ordeal). Once he has crossed that line, all hell breaks loose and any female who comes into his gaze could be a potential crime statistic. His relationship with Boti Bliss is a sick imitation of a loving man who positions himself in society as an upstanding figure and actually is a lethal destruction machine capable of taking lives until stopped by police or a bullet. Or both. Ted later takes his homicidal self on the road and terrorizes several states in the Northwestern US (contrary to the urban legend concerning Debbie Harry, there's no evidence Ted ever went to New York). He manages to con person after person and the crime he eventually was sentenced to die for in Florida shouldn't have been logistically possible. He is the ultimate opportunist and his ability to resume his violence in the last third of the film when that should have been the end of his freedom will disgust any viewer in their right mind. Too many filmmakers try to explain the motives for their subjects' acts. Bright and Burke simply present Ted as he was, a disturbed little boy who never "grew up", but enlarged into an adult offender with twisted fantasies of torture, rape and necrophilia that he brought into a world not ready to deal with these pathologies. He blamed the alcohol and * he consumed for his acts, of course, because the extreme audacity any felon like this would need to live with their lack of a conscience never admits that they are at fault.

This movie is not for the faint-of-heart; it's a story about a vicious serial killer, and does not pretty up the subject matter. Thus there are numerous scenes of bloody and perverse sex, dead bodies galore, lots of profanity, and an overall atmosphere of sickness. None of this is pleasant to watch, but is entirely appropriate for the subject matter. The script stays close to fact, although it leaves out some important information; neglecting, for example, to mention that one woman Bundy approached at Lake Sammamish refused to follow him into the parking lot. Her evidence provided a description and a name to a previously faceless monster, the first real lead the police had in the case. The movie also fails to give any real sense of the era in which Bundy flourished. In the swinging seventies, it was not so uncommon for women to get into cars or otherwise accept approaches from total strangers -- one reason for Bundy's success. This film suffers from a lack of focus and purpose. It does give a good sense of the progression of Bundy's hideous career: the burglarizing, purse-snatching, shoplifting peeping tom gradually deteriorates into the brutal, raping, murdering serial killer. We see his alcoholism, his ability to be totally charming when necessary, and his knack for attracting "enabling" girlfriends into his life. What we don't see is anything of the inner Bundy. Granted, any depiction of the "inner Bundy" would be pure speculation, but a good movie would at least make an attempt to give some motive for Bundy's violent compulsions. All this movie does is make some vague references to his illegitimacy. I need to also mention the incredibly poor taste in background music. In some sequences, light-hearted music is playing while Bundy is committing heinous acts of violence. (Christmas music in one case!) Perhaps the director meant to indicate that all this horror was just plain fun to Bundy; but the effect is to cheapen the scenes and even make them comic. The verdict: Iffy. Lacks depth, and occasionly shows poor taste. Leaves out important information. On the plus side, it is well-acted, and does not attempt to sugar coat the ugly facts of violence. If you want a thoughtful examination of Bundy's character and the era in which he lived, this is not the right movie.

I have seen almost every serial killer movie ever made. I, also work in the mental health field. Combining this information, I still cannot completely believe what I just watched. Someone in the production was privied to actual mental health knowledge, because this presentation was very realistic. The TV movie dealt with the obsession, but not with the actual disease. This version dealt with the progression of violence and the increasing brazeness of the psychotic mind. Sometimes, it is hard to watch realistic violence, and separate it from every day violence. The director nailed the unstable personality traits to a tee. Ted Bundy was an animal and a human being, waiting for his true love. There never was one and he paid the ultimate price. If, only Clozaril had been available then. Alan Sheldon

The man can turn s**t into gold if asked to. Freeway being one of my favorite movies, I expected a lot of him in Ted Bundy, and he fulfilled every expectation, and then some. His style hasn't changed, still has that creepy Movie of the Week feel to it, with R-rated gore and violence, a very unsettling juxtaposition. This movie, like Freeway, is not for the easy vomitters. Or the sensitive. I had to sleep with my window closed and one eye open last night.

The story of Ted Bundy is a truly fascinating one. The movie "Ted Bundy" however, failed to portray many of the most interesting periods in his life. That, along with one glaring bit of unrealism and a complete lack of tastefulness kept me from enjoying this movie. Some fine acting performances make the film watchable, but only barely. Ted Bundy had a troubling childhood where he discovered in his early teens that he was illegitimate and that the man who had acted his father was in fact not. This was a terrible shock to young Ted and he retreated into pulp fiction detective stories that were actually soft-core *. Between feeling he had been betrayed by his mother and the sexual arousal he got from these stories, his pathos began to form. All the while, Ted Bundy got good grades and kept up appearances at school. He graduated high school and college without real difficulty. He became very politically active for the Republican party here in Seattle, and made some contacts that would later be horrified to learn to whom they had given allegiance, most notably a man named Ralph Munro who would become the Attorney General of the state of Washington. It is at this point where the movie starts, and not with his political prowess, but rather with a relationship he had with a local woman. The film depicts him trying to have genuine human contact and showing real concern to this woman, two things of which this monster was completely incapable. It only briefly shows him in a social situation where he proves highly charismatic, and can get almost anyone to like him within a few moments, a trait necessary to his future endeavors. These scenes in Seattle offer a technical quibble as they seem to have been shot in Pasadena or some other southern CA location. There are shots with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background and some dreadful scenes at a park where the background is very sparse. Here in Seattle, one would have to drive 100 miles or more to find a park with a hillside barren of trees in the background, but this does not discourage our film makers. The most aggravating part of this is the fact that there are many places in northern CA that could have been used for Seattle without running the cost up too much, but the producers of the film were evidently not concerned. Most of the rest of the film is devoted to his killings, and even shows a couple with seemingly perverse pleasure. While they do show him as a monster, there is almost a sick humor to them that I found somewhat inappropriate. The film does well to show that one of his jail breaks was facilitated by his befriending a guard. The film completely disregards one of the most fascinating periods of his life however; his trial. Ted Bundy proved to be a fairly adept attorney and was able to mount a creative defense and the judge even complimented him on his litigation skills when pronouncing the verdict. While in prison awaiting trial, Ted Bundy developed a romance and went so far as to call the woman as a witness in his trial, and make his wedding vows part of his murder trial. This is totally overlooked by the movie. All in all, this movie seems to be an excuse to show a couple of rape-murders rather than a serious attempt to understand the mental mis-wiring of one of the sickest persons ever to walk the face of the earth.

The memories of Ted Bundy's murders still haunt my city. Every single person old enough to read in the 70's was (and some to a degree still are) terrified of this mysterious stranger who would abduct and ultimately murder these beautiful young women. That said - this is a really good film on all levels. Acting, writing, direction are all top notch. The opening scene of "Hi, I'm Ted. Pleased to meet you" is particularly disturbing. This man was by all appearances a handsome young law student considering a political career when really he was a slobbering ogre. If you felt the TV movie with Mark Harmon was lacking that certain something, watch this. It is by no means sympathetic to that creature. In fact, it reveals a manipulative and pathetic crybaby loser. While there is definitely sadistic murderous behavior depicted, it never reaches a level inappropriate for the tale.

Be prepared to leave your lights on in order to sleep for at least three days after first viewing this morbidly fascinating account of mass-murdering, intelligent sociopath Ted Bundy and his descent into soul-less depravity. As a study in human nature gone wrong, this is a fascinating body of work. Particularly because this movie is, unfortunately, based on the facts, I am grateful that the viewer is not forced to witness Bundy's every demonic act, though little is actually left to mystery. Chilling, thought-provoking, disturbing, tragic, and well-made, this movie is an often shocking account of one cold-blooded monster's reign of terror. The best part for this viewer is that the movie allows us to see Bundy sentenced to death. A. Freimann

For me True Crime Movies are always unsettling because you know the actual facts are true. It´s not some sort of Horror-Entertainment but the visual depiction of true life atrocity, which adds some sort of authentification fictional Films always struggle for. In this case one hell of cynical campy director walks on the edge of sensationalism, serial killer fandom, critics of death-penalty and honest depiction of a truly evil and disturbed person. Ted Bundy is the trustworthy, educated, well dressed guy who gets quiet a lot of girls, delves into sadism and necrophilia and raises hell for so many female victims. For friends of torture and sadism the film doesn´t deliver too much except one scene I won´t spoil. But try this: Identify with the female victim that is awfully abused and destroyed by this talky misanthrope mother****er while another victim has to watch in handcuffs. This is one scene where the director gets serious and doesn´t turn the act into farce. It would be hard to stand to go more into details in depicting the cruelties, so the director lays more focus to show the killer´s deformed personality in more close-to-life scenes. Decide for yourself if you would have had the balls to just film the killing of one victim after another for shock value while knowing maybe relatives of the victims will watch your movie. The film centers most of the time on the killers perspective or stays very close to him, whereas the female victims are portrait ranging from naive and unsuspicious to pretty tough (Carol DaRonch). We don´t get much of an idea why Ted turned into this acts except one unsatisfying self-explaining attempt to his girlfriend. The film has production-weeknesses that could be intended, I don´t know how many times we saw the boom-mic. At first you think it´s a mistake, then you think it´s high-camp and later it adds some unintended trash-factor, as well as the relaxing soundtrack during the end-credits. The Film is probably more interesting if you know the facts already and you can identify what´s going on. As final result the movie gives Ted credit in how demented and tough in killing he was but a weakling in facing the consequences of his unhuman deeds. A truly despicable person with insight what hell is really like.