Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile

PLOT

In 1969 Seattle, law student Ted Bundy (Zac Efron) meets Elizabeth "Liz" Kendall (Lily Collins), a young secretary and divorced mother. The two begin dating, and Ted helps Liz raise her young daughter, Molly.

By 1974, news reports announce the recent murders of multiple young women, including two who disappeared in broad daylight at Lake Sammamish; a man resembling Ted was seen by several people asking women to help him load a sailboat onto a Volkswagen Beetle. A composite sketch of the attacker is released and, following hundreds of phone calls, Ted is arrested the following year.

A young woman named Carol DaRonch (Grace Victoria Cox) picks Ted out of a police lineup, claiming he had kidnapped and threatened to kill her before she managed to escape. Ted is released on bail, returning home to Liz who is upset after reading an article about him in the newspaper. Ted explains that Carol was shown his picture before the lineup took place, which is why he looked familiar to her, and says he believes he is being set up. After a four-day bench trial, Ted is found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and is sentenced to serve a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 15 years in the Utah State Prison.

A few weeks later, Colorado authorities charge Ted with the murder of Caryn Campbell, and he is transferred to Aspen, Colorado in 1977. Liz refuses to believe Ted is guilty, the events start to take a toll on her, and she begins drinking heavily as a result. While at Pitkin County Courthouse, Ted elects to serve as his own attorney and, as such, is excused from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles. During a court recess, Ted escapes from the courthouse by jumping out of a second-story window and running to the mountains through the town, but is recaptured after six days.

Liz visits Ted and ends their relationship. He later escapes again after sawing a square into his cell's ceiling. Two women at a sorority house are murdered at Florida State University, followed by vicious attacks on three more. After Ted is arrested, he tries to contact Liz, but she hangs up on him. He starts to receive a following of women who are fascinated by him, some even claiming they love him. Ted is also visited by an old friend, Carole Ann Boone (Kaya Scodelario), who believes he is innocent and moves to Florida to be closer to him during his upcoming murder trial.

A pre-trial plea bargain is negotiated in which Bundy would plead guilty to killing the two sorority girls, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, and twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach, in exchange for a 75-year prison sentence instead of the death penalty, but he refuses. Ted and Carole Ann grow closer as she visits him regularly; the two begin a relationship, but Ted continues to reach out to Liz who is following his trials via television. She carries the guilt of being the person who gave Ted's name to the Seattle authorities in 1975. Ted later proposes to Carole Ann mid-trial and they marry.

Incriminating physical evidence is provided in court, including a match of a plaster cast of Ted's teeth to the impressions of bite wounds left on Levy's buttocks. In under seven hours, the jury convicts Ted of the murders of Levy and Bowman, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of burglary. Trial judge Edward Cowart (John Malkovich) imposes death sentences for the murder convictions to be carried out with execution by electrocution.

Ten years later, Liz receives a letter from Ted and visits him, taking a photograph given to her by a detective. She demands the truth but Ted continues to deny having anything to do with the murders and proclaims his innocence. She then shows Ted a photograph — a crime scene image of one of his decapitated victims - and he finally admits that he sawed her head off by writing the word "hacksaw" on the dew-misted window of the visiting room. Liz leaves the prison in shock but is met outside by her new husband Jerry (Haley Joel Osment) and Molly, now a teenager, and she proclaims that she is finally okay.

As the film ends, archival footage and on-screen text say that Ted was executed in January 1989, aged 42 years old. Ted had confessed to over 30 murders days before his execution, and his ashes were scattered in the Cascade Mountains, where he had deposited the remains of numerous victims.

CAST

Zac Efron as Ted Bundy,

Lily Collins as Liz Kendall,

Kaya Scodelario as Carole Ann Boone,

Jeffrey Donovan as John O'Connell,

Angela Sarafyan as Joanna,

Dylan Baker as David Yocom,

Brian Geraghty as Dan Dowd,

Terry Kinney as Mike Fisher,

Haley Joel Osment as Jerry Thompson,

James Hetfield as Bob Hayward,

Grace Victoria Cox as Carol DaRonch,

Jim Parsons as Larry Simpson,

John Malkovich as Edward Cowart,

Justin McCombs as Jim Dumas,

Forba Shepherd as Louise Bundy,

Molly Kendall, Liz's daughter, is portrayed at different ages by Macie Carmosino, Ava Inman, Morgan Pyle, and Grace Balbo. Director Joe Berlinger and cinematographer Brandon Trost make cameo appearances as the presenter and cameraman who interview Ted in Colorado.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

biographical crime drama film about the life of serial killer Ted Bundy.

based on Bundy's former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall's memoir