Cinema Crusaders Movie Review: Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman

I feel like I should preface my review of this film by stating up front I have read, watched or listened to just about every work ever created about and especially by Theodore Robert Bundy. Does that make me an expert on the man and his crimes? No and that’s not what I am claiming to be. However, I believe I could have written a far more engrossing and certainly more accurate account of the events leading up to and including Bundy’s ultimate demise as a victim himself of murder. Of course as we know his murder was funded, approved and carried out by the state of Florida. I know I may be jumping into the rhetorical realm with both feet here at the very beginning of what is meant to be a review of this film, but I just don’t think a strict review on the merits and quality of this particular film really tells the entire tale of just how bad it really is.

The opening sequence of the film is extremely well done. The music has that distinct 1980’s horror soundtrack vibe to it which works perfectly with the way the credits are presented, this is unfortunately the high point of this ultimately dismal and disappointing film. While there is plenty of blame to share, most of that would have to fall squarely upon writer/director Daniel Farrands. If he did any research at all for this film, he either chose to ignore the facts or found that the truth of Bundy’s heinous and excessively violent attacks were not gruesome enough for his film. Either way Farrands only succeeds in turning the case that basically brought serial killers into public awareness into a D-grade thriller that at its best looks like a third rate X-Files rip off and at its worst is just flat out unwatchable dreck.

Farrands plays fast and loose with facts immediately, shuffling locations. adding dialogue that contains more cheese than a Pizza Hut Franchise and adding meaningless events that just didn’t happen. For instance basically the entire recounting of the Chi Omega slaughter is so heavily fictionized it is all but unrecognizable. In Farrands flight of fancy Officer Kathleen McChesney, played annoyingly stoic by Holland Roden, actually shows up in time to shoot Bundy before he disappears into the Floridian night like Michael Meyers on Spring Break. It wouldn’t be fair to single out Roden’s performance as being the only sub par turn, far from it. In fact the entite cast seems to be made up of those poor souls who didn’t get a call back for Saved By The Bell. Former teen heart throb Chad Michael Murray chews more scenery than a grazing goat as he ham handedly fumbles with props and delivers each line with all the authenticity of a hired Clown at a kids birthday party. Jake Hays as legendary FBI agent Robert Ressler does little to save this sinking ship. Not once, not even for one second do he command the screen or display the agent who in reality coined the term serial killer as anything more than a ginger haired Fox Mulder wannabe.

Farrands has a respectable resume as a horror film maker, where he gets above his paygrade is when he attempts to marry fact and fiction. A concept that may work with other genres but, the first word of True Crime is true and Farrands seems to have a real aversion to that aspect in each of his films loosely based on real events ie; The Haunting of Sharon Tate, The Amityville Murders, The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and most recently Aileen Wournos: American Boogeywoman which we can only hope is the last in a series.

Making a decent biopic based on a serial killer is not the easiest thing to do. For one it doesn’t generally attract the A list talent needed to produce a quality film. Second there is always the issue of victims families crying about exploitation and finally very few people care if a serial killer is portrayed fairly or even accurately. Well some of us do care and when the liberties taken with the actual story yeild films like this I think more people should care. Ted Bundy was, like all serial killers, mentally ill. So to portray him as nothing more than a mindless bloodthirsty ghoul like Jason or Freddy, that is a disservice to not only Bundy but, to his victims, their families and his. The way Bundy’s grieving mother was portrayed in this film would have been better suited for a comedy sketch, and not a good one, think current era SNL.

If you are truly interested in learning about the facts in the Ted Bundy case your time would be better spent watching the Netflix’s documentary Conversations With A Killer or the extremely well done Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer based on the story of Bundy’s one time live in girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer available on Amazon. If a biopic is what scratches your serial killer itch try Extremely Wicked; Shockingly Evil and Vile also on Netflix but far more accurate and Zac Efron does a surprisingly convincing turn as the law student turned deranged killer. This film presents a much more nuanced and fully actualized depiction of Bundy as a person and pays tons more attention to the facts of the case.

All in all I cannot honestly offer you a single reason to watch this film. As someone who is extremely interested in the subject matter of the film I furthermore find it impossible to even suggest watching to provide any sort of context. In short the real boogeyman in this film is Farrands, he scared the facts right out of it.

SCORE: 0.5/5

writer/director- Daniel Farrands

starring- Chad Michael Murray

Holland Roden

Jake Hays