Ted Bundy (film)

Ted Bundy is a 2002 independent, biographical, crime-thriller film that was written and directed by Matthew Bright, and co-written by Stephen Johnston. The film, which had a limited theatrical release, is a sardonic dramatization of the sexual homicides of Ted Bundy, an American serial killer and necrophiliac who murdered and raped dozens of women and girls in the United States during the 1970s. It stars Michael Reilly Burke as Bundy and Boti Bliss as Bundy’s girlfriend, Lee.

Plot

In 1974, Theodore “Ted” Robert Bundy appears to be a typical, well-adjusted student at the Seattle University School of Law who works part-time at a local crisis center. Unbeknown to his family and friends, however, Ted is a sociopathic, satyrid misogynist. After engaging in voyeurism, petty thefts, and drug abuse, Ted builds up the courage to commit his first lust murder of one of his hotline callers. After this point, Bundy breaks into the homes of his young, female victims, or lures them to his car by faking disabilities or by impersonating a police officer. Ted then incapacitates and abducts his victims, drives them to a strategic location, and rapes and murders them. Achieving countrywide infamy, Ted eludes the authorities because he has extensive knowledge of law enforcement and legal tactics from school, including his ability to avoid fitting offender profiles. Law enforcement authorities, however, have Ted’s facial composites and have learned his nickname from witnesses.

In 1975, at Murray, Utah, one of Ted’s intended victims, Tina Gabler, overpowers Ted, escapes from his moving car and is rescued by another driver. Two months later, based on Tina’s description of his car, a Utah Highway Patrol officer stops and arrests Ted. In Ted’s trunk, the state police find his rape kit. Tina testifies against Ted at his trial, where he is convicted for his crimes against Tina. Authorities are alerted about Ted; they investigate his further and soon determine he is the serial killer they are looking for. Police visit Ted’s girlfriend, Lee, in Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Ted tells Lee charges are being brought against him for multiple murders, but says investigators lack hard evidence and that he will never be convicted. At this point, Lee realizes Ted is guilty and ends their relationship.

In 1977, Ted asks to represent himself at his trial and is granted access to the Pitkin County Courthouse’s law library. He promptly escapes by jumping from an upper-story window. Six days later, after attempting auto theft at Aspen Mountain, Ted is re-arrested by a female police officer and returns to prison. Months later, after a tryst with his visiting lover Betty, who believes Ted is innocent, Ted again escapes after Christmas and becomes one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The following year, Ted settles in Tallahassee, Florida, and continues his murder spree. He assaults four women in Florida State University’s Chi Omega sorority house and kills two of them. Over a month later, Ted rapes and murders twelve-year old Suzanne Bruster. Four days later, on February 12, Ted is arrested and beaten by a Pensacola police officer.

Ted is tried at Dade County Circuit Court for his killing sprees in the state and is sentenced to death in the electric chair at Florida State Prison. Footage of onlookers anticipating his execution is shown. Despairing, Ted undergoes anticipatory grief over his plight but no remorse for his crimes, and he is unable to obtain a plea bargain after repeatedly losing his appeal for over ten years. After resisting futilely and undergoing abuse while being prepared for execution, Ted makes a summation as a message to his loved ones. He is executed in front of his victims’ families on the morning of January 24, 1989; the executioner is revealed to be a young woman. Revelers rejoice at Ted’s death. As Lee watches news coverage of the execution with her husband, she wonders: “Who was Ted Bundy”?

Cast

Release

Ted Bundy had a limited theatrical release in US cities including New York City and Los Angeles in September 2002. In America, it grossed $1,710 on its opening weekend and $6,073 in total, and internationally it grossed $62,643 for a total of $68,716.

Home media

On October 1, 2002, Overseas Filmgroup/First Look Media releasedTed Bundy on DVD in the US, and Tartan Video released it in the UK in November 2003 under the title Bundy. The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time by the home-video company Vinegar Syndrome on January 31, 2023.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Ted Bundy holds an approval rating of 41% based on twenty-two reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Ted Bundy wastes an impressive performance from Michael Reilly Burke on an exploitative film devoid of any social context or depth”. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on eleven critics, indicating “generally unfavorable” reviews.

Chauncey Gardner of Ain’t It Cool News was critical of the film’s “really offensive” final scene but otherwise praised it, writing: “It’s the movie American Psycho wanted to be, a balls out, no punches pulled examination of a sick and twisted soul”. Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave the film a score of 3/5, said Matthew Bright does not glamorize or fetishize Bundy or his crimes, and praised Burke’s acting, calling it “dead on” and a performance that “evokes “the subtle wrongness beneath the facade that gripped the public imagination”. Derek Elley of Variety also praised the “pulpy” and humorously macabre film, deeming it a “quality low-budgeter” that feels like a “disturbingly stygian comedy-drama” with a sine qua non performance by Burke.

The Christian Science Monitor gave Ted Bundy a score of 2/4, calling it a “melodrama” and writing: “It’s grisly going, but no more exploitative than a lot of mainstream TV reporting about violent crime”. Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle gave Ted Bundy a score of 1/5, having found its disquieting atmosphere and commentary on 1970s society are undermined by its “muddled” nature, concluding the film “is never really sure what to say about its subject”. Similarly, Neil Smith of the BBC lambasted the film, giving it a score of 2/5and calling an “orgy of gratuitous violence” in which “[w]e learn next to nothing about what made Bundy tick, and leave no closer to understanding how such aberrations occur”.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian found the film to be plodding and “drearily pointless”, and wrote: “This picture is arguably more honest than sexy star vehicles like Red Dragon. That doesn’t stop it from being unrewarding, unpleasant and very, very boring.” David Chute of LA Weekly was critical of the film’s tone, stating: “It’s possible that something hip and transgressive was being attempted here that stubbornly refused to gel, but the result is more puzzling than unsettling”. Mike D’Angelo of Time Out was largely dismissive of the film, saying there is “too much exploitation and too little art”, and that: “The sight of ordinary-looking people committing unspeakably vicious acts no longer carries an inherent charge, and Ted Bundy offers little else”.

Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News called Ted Bundy “revolting exploitation” and stated: “If the goal of this biographical horror film about one of America’s sickest serial killers was to be as loathsome as its subject, mission accomplished”. Megan Turner of New York Post deemed the film a “trashy, exploitative, thoroughly unpleasant experience” that is “tone-deaf” and “more than a little misogynistic”. In a review written for The Village Voice, Michael Atkinson said the film “never digs very deep” and concluded: “In the end, Ted Bundy’ only justification is the director’s common but unexplored fascination with the frustrated maniac; there’s no larger point, and little social context. Badlands this ain’t.”

Michael Reilly Burke and Boti Bliss were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, at the 2003 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.

See also

The Deliberate Stranger, a 1980 book about Ted Bundy, later adapted into a TV-movie starring Mark Harmon as Bundy

Bundy: An American Icon, a 2009 film about Ted Bundy

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a 2019 film about Ted Bundy

No Man of God, a 2021 film about Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman, a 2021 film about Ted Bundy

References

External links

Ted Bundy at IMDb

Ted Bundy at Rotten Tomatoes