TED BUNDY (Matthew Bright, 2002)

Reviewed: September 15th, 2002

From Matthew Bright, the writer/director of the terrible Freeway (1996), comes Ted Bundy, a disgustingly hollow and superficial examination of the titular serial killer. Providing absolutely no insight into Bundy's character or mind, the movie's primarily a (super tiresome) string of sequences of Bundy kidnapping women, raping them, then killing them (plus intermediate scenes of Bundy being cruel to his inexplicably adoring, pseudo-girlfriend). Bright may know to shoot a film (although his stylistic flourishes are largely pointless), but him and co-screenwriter Stephen Johnston have zero knack for dialogue: dumb one-liners often veer on comedy, and if that is the intention I find it offensive and grotesque to make light of the man responsible for slaying up to one hundred women. No help is provided by the film's two stars; Michael Reilly Burke as Bundy is flat and one-note and Bodi Ann Bliss as girlfriend Lee is awkwardly over-dramatic. There's probably an interesting, worthwhile film to be made about Bundy -- an exploratory charting from childhood to killer -- but Bright unwisely decided to begin his timeline just a few days before Bundy started murdering. The most powerful drama here is generated from a few bits of real-life news footage Bright slices in, proving that a documentary would have been the far more effective route to traverse. Also featuring a nonsensical coda. I can't fathom why this film was made.

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