Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile reviews: ‘Compulsively watchable’ Bundy biopic

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile will land in UK cinemas next month, coming hot on the tail of The Ted Bundy Tapes series on Netflix. The plot of the new film starring Zac Efron reads: “Elizabeth Kloepfer (Lily Collins) refused for years to acknowledge that her boyfriend was a serial killer. Her partner, Ted Bundy (Zac Efron), became famous in the 1980s for committing several heinous crimes against women, despite her disbelief, who watched passively as the murders were unleashed from a very unique perspective.”

What did critics say about Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile?

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile has a respectable 64 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics’ consensus reads: “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile often transcends its narrative limitations through sheer force of Zac Efron’s compulsively watchable performance.”

Despite the middling score, many critics praised Efron’s performance.

Brian Tallerico for RogerEbert.com:

It’s particularly disappointing that Extremely Wicked doesn’t work considering that Zac Efron is giving it his all here.

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Sam Adams for Slate:

Narratives help us sift the meaningful harbingers from the detritus of life. Extremely Wicked discards them entirely.

Kate Erbland for indieWire:

More sad than salacious, it’s the rare film about a criminal that offers human details without humanizing a man who so many agree was a monster.

Johnny Oleksinski for the New York Post:

Berlinger’s aim, it seems, is to cast doubt on whether or not Bundy actually murdered anybody until the very end of the movie to maintain suspense. Good luck, Joe!

A.A. Dowd for the AV Club:

Extremely Wicked can’t seem to commit to its ostensibly limited POV.

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Emily Yoshida for New York Magazine/Vulture:

If the narrative film only exists to give us the unsettling sliminess of Efron as Bundy, it won’t be a total waste. But it’s not much of a movie, either.

Owen Gleiberman for Variety:

How is Zac Efron as Bundy? I think he’s startlingly good: controlled, magnetic, audacious, committed, and eerily right.

Carlos Aguilar for TheWrap:

Less a play-by-play perusal of the killer’s methods and perversions, and more an examination of our biases and unending fascination for those among us that find twisted fulfilment in brutality.

Kristy Strouse for Film Inquiry:

Personally, the courtroom element incurs a stuffy countenance, but watching Efron infer Bundy’s unyielding charisma improves the setting.

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Rafael Motamayor for IGN Movies:

Despite Zac Efron’s performance, the film’s humorous take on a serial killer as a rock star doesn’t really work.

Todd McCarthy for the Hollywood Reporter:

Berlinger attacks the story in a rough-and-ready style only somewhat more refined than what he employs in documentaries, and the approach feels entirely appropriate.

Benjamin Lee for the Guardian:

In fact, the most shocking thing about the film is Efron’s remarkably accomplished, fiercely committed performance.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile is out in UK cinemas and on Sky on May 3, 2019.

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