So, you’ve probably seen the thumbnail. Zac Efron, looking remarkably like a 1970s heartthrob, staring through a prison glass. It’s the netflix ted bundy movie—officially titled Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile—and it’s a weird one. Honestly, it's not your typical slasher or a gritty "police procedural" where grizzled detectives hunt a monster. It’s a movie that spends almost its entire runtime trying to convince you that Ted Bundy might actually be innocent.
That’s the point, though.
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Directed by Joe Berlinger, who also did the The Ted Bundy Tapes docuseries, the film intentionally puts us in the shoes of Elizabeth "Liz" Kendall (played by Lily Collins). For years, Liz lived with a man who was warm, domestic, and helped raise her daughter. She didn’t see a killer. She saw a partner. If you went into this looking for a body count, you likely walked away confused. The movie is less about the murders and more about the gaslighting of a nation—and one specific woman.
The Zac Efron Factor: Why the "Hot Bundy" Backlash Missed the Mark
When the trailer first dropped in 2019, people lost their minds. "Why are we romanticizing a serial killer?" was the common refrain on Twitter. They saw Efron’s charm as a betrayal of the victims. But if you actually sit through the film, you realize that Efron’s "hotness" is the most accurate part of the whole production.
Bundy wasn’t a shadow-dwelling creep. He was a law student. He was a political operative. He was, by all accounts of the time, "one of us."
- The Deception: The film focuses on the "mask of sanity."
- The Casting: Zac Efron was chosen specifically because he carries that "Disney prince" baggage.
- The Reality: If Bundy looked like a monster, he wouldn't have been able to lure dozens of women to their deaths.
Using a traditionally "attractive" actor wasn't about making Bundy a hero. It was about showing how easy it is for evil to hide in plain sight. Most people forget that during the actual trial in Florida, Bundy had a literal fan club of women sitting in the gallery. They thought he was being framed. The movie tries to make you feel that same uncertainty, even though we all know how the story ends.
What Really Happened vs. The Netflix Version
Movies always tweak the truth for drama. It's just what they do. However, when you're dealing with a guy who confessed to 30 murders (and likely committed many more), those tweaks matter.
One of the biggest deviations is how much Liz knew and when she knew it. In the netflix ted bundy movie, Liz seems largely blind-sided until the very final scene. In real life, the suspicion started way earlier. According to Elizabeth Kendall’s memoir, The Phantom Prince, she actually called the police on Ted multiple times. She saw a hatchet in his car. She found a bag of women's clothes. She even saw the composite sketch released by police in 1974 and realized it looked exactly like her boyfriend.
The movie compresses this into a slow-burn realization to keep the "is he or isn't he" tension alive for the audience.
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The "Hacksaw" Scene
That final confrontation? The one where Efron writes "HACKSAW" on the glass?
That never happened.
In reality, Liz and Ted's final communication was over the phone, and it wasn't nearly that cinematic. The film needed a "break the fever" moment for the character of Liz, a way to finally sever the tie. While it makes for great cinema, it’s a total fabrication. Bundy didn't offer that kind of closure to the people he loved; he was a manipulator until the electric chair.
Why This Movie Still Matters in 2026
True crime has exploded since 2019, but this specific project remains a benchmark for how we handle "celebrity" killers. It forced a conversation about the ethics of the genre.
Joe Berlinger made a conscious choice not to show the violence. Think about that for a second. In a movie about one of history's most prolific killers, you don't see a single drop of blood until the very end. Some critics hated this, calling it "sanitized." Others argued it was the only respectful way to tell the story without turning the victims' deaths into "entertainment."
By stripping away the gore, the film forces you to look at the psychology. It asks: How did he get away with it? 1. State Lines: Police departments didn't talk to each other back then.
2. Bias: Nobody believed a "clean-cut" white man could be a necrophile.
3. Media: The first televised trial turned a murderer into a TV star.
Actionable Insights: How to Watch with a Critical Eye
If you’re planning a rewatch or seeing it for the first time, don't just take it at face value. Use it as a starting point for actual research.
- Read the Source Material: Pick up The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall. It’s a haunting look at how domesticity can coexist with horror.
- Cross-Reference with the Tapes: Watch the companion docuseries, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. It uses the actual audio recordings from death row. Hearing Bundy's real voice—arrogant, rambling, and detached—fills in the gaps that the movie leaves behind.
- Focus on the Victims: Research the lives of women like Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. The movie is Liz’s story, but the real story belongs to the lives Bundy cut short.
The netflix ted bundy movie isn't a definitive biography. It's a study of a specific type of blindness. It’s a reminder that the most dangerous people aren’t always the ones scowling in the dark; sometimes, they’re the ones making you breakfast and telling you they love you.
To get the full picture, pair your viewing of the film with a deep dive into the 1979 Florida trial transcripts to see just how much of Bundy's "charm" was actually a desperate, failing act of a cornered man.