by Abbey Raison

The newest Netflix film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile has become popular after the mini documentary series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes was released earlier this year. The new film documents Ted Bundy’s trials, time in jail, and his struggling relationship with his significant other, Liz.

I recently watched this film with a friend who is also interested in Ted Bundy’s story. We expected the movie to be a horror film, in which they reenacted Bundy’s killings. Instead, the plot line revolved around his jail time and his trials, eventually leading up to his death sentence. Expecting a horror film and getting a mystery drama was extremely disappointing. We continued to wait for the action until the movie was over. Overall, the movie was well done and explained his trials well, but the film was not what was expected.

Additionally, we were both shocked to see Zac Efron starring in such a dark role. During the film, I looked at my friend and said, “Troy Bolton, why?!” referencing Zac Efron’s role as a singing high school student in a popular Disney Channel movie series. To our generation, Zac Efron will always be Troy Bolton, so seeing him as a killer was amusing more than terrifying.

The film, while interesting, was also horribly repetitive. It felt like whiplash going back and forth between jail time and trials, unceasingly. The movie is nearly 2 hours long and after the first 45 minutes, the film became almost boring. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was well done, filmography wise, but was too long for the short attention spans of my generation.