By Creative Media Times
Voltage Pictures
The thriller biopic continues Efron’s transition from Disney star to leading man roles following last year’s highly successful “The Greatest Showman.”
Lily Collins co-stars as Bundy’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, whose perspective is the basis of the film’s story. The two had a troubled turbulent six-year relationship wherein Elizabeth struggled to accept Bundy’s true psychopath nature.
The film’s title does warn us: the trailer is violent and, well, vile, an appropriate treatment given the subject matter but may surprise those unfamiliar with the character and its premise.
Here we see the beginnings of the relationship and the couple’s initial meeting at a bar, then to Bundy’s arrest and then eventually to Elizabeth’s trepidation that there is something diabolical underneath Bundy’s clean cut all-american looks.
There is also plenty of footage of the trial which has led to the Bundy’s infamy, all seemingly mocking the media and public obsession over Bundy’s unlikely killer. “I’m more popular than Disney World,” Bundy says.
Even the casting of Efron is an interesting choice. Whether people are able to get into his character recalls those who bought into Bundy’s image in the 70s and how his charismatic facade plays into the equation.
There is a lot of great talents in “Extremely Wicked,” among them John Malkovich as judge Edward Cowart, Kaya Scodelario as Carole Ann Boone, Haley Joel Osment as Jerry Thompson and Jim Parsons as Larry Simpson.
The film is directed by Emmy-winner Joe Berlinger, whom with Bruce Sinofsky co-helmed the stunning film series “Paradise Lost” which began in 1996, followed by sequels Paradise Lost 2: Revelations in 2000, and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory in 2011.
