Award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger and late collaborator Bruce Sinofsky were always interested in making films about the way our justice or injustice, system worked; the perpetrators, the victims, the fascination was there seeped into every frame of “Brother’s Keeper” and “Paradise Lost.” However, in their Ted Bundy biopic “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” Berlinger decides to turn his camera towards the “charismatic killer” and the way evil can easily be shaded by charm.
Berlinger already has “The Ted Bundy Tapes” on Netflix and, given that the streaming giant also bought Extremely vile’ at Sundance for $13 million, a double-feature is damn-near impossible to resist between these two films.
In my Sundance rave review of Berlinger’s “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” I wrote:
“This is a character study about a charming and intelligent guy who exhibited kindness to women and children alike, but also happened to be a murderer. Who else but Zac Efron to play Bundy, an actor known for his rugged good looks, nice-guy persona and overall chill demeanor. It’s a stroke of perceptively brilliant casting.”
“Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile” will arrive in select theaters and on Netflix on May 3.