Netflix's Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile Trailer Is Surprisingly Murder-Free

Netflix's Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile Trailer Is Surprisingly Murder-Free

After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Netflix scooped up the somewhat controversial Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, the Ted Bundy movie starring Zac Efron as the charming and despicable serial killer. We’ve been waiting to hear when the wider public would get to see this film and now, along with a release date, the streaming service has released a new trailer for the film and it's surprisingly murder-free. Take a look:

Despite this being a serial killer movie with an R rating for “disturbing/violent content,” this latest trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile eschews all such brutality, opting not to show any of Ted Bundy’s murders. Yet that lack of onscreen violence does nothing to diminish the darkness present in this trailer. If anything, it actually gives the whole thing an underlying sense of dread that is much more potent than the previous trailer.

That is perhaps the most interesting thing about this trailer, how much it contrasts with the original Voltage Pictures trailer that arrived right before the Sundance premiere and before Netflix picked up the movie. The original trailer, which actually did show brief snippets of Ted Bundy committing crimes, had more of a light feel to it, showcasing Zac Efron’s charm and attractiveness as the serial killer. It also had a rock soundtrack that fit the way the trailer was cut, but was incongruous with the nature of the crimes.

This new trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is a different beast entirely. Instead of focusing on Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy, this trailer puts much more emphasis on the character of Liz,played by Lily Collins. The film is told from the perspective of Ted Bundy’s girlfriend who refused to see the truth about him for years and this trailer is more in line with that as we see more of her struggle with Ted and that truth.

Additionally, this trailer establishes a much more serious tone, utilizing ominous music that befits that horrors Ted Bundy committed, even if we don’t get to glimpse them here. Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy, who has been the subject of some controversy for being attractive, has his charm toned down in this trailer and his creepiness is amplified. It’s kind of fascinating how that dichotomy of presentation is reflective of the way Ted Bundy was outwardly perceived and his true nature.

I wonder if Netflix choosing to sell the film in this way is at all a response to the criticisms that have been raised about ‘hot Ted Bundy’. It also raises the question of what this film actually is, because the trailers pitch two different tones. Such is the power of editing.

When we first heard that this movie was coming to Netflix it seemed that the streaming service was planning on a small theatrical run come awards season. Whether it will receive any awards recognition remains to be seen, but Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile will be arriving much sooner than that previous assumption would indicate. The film will arrive on Netflix and in select theaters on May 3.

While not an awards season release, that does position Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile in closer proximity to Netflix’s series, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, also from director Joe Berlinger. So Netflix can capitalize on that true crime interest as the one-stop shop for Ted Bundy in 2019, the 30th anniversary of his execution.

Will Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile wind up becoming one of the better serial killer movies based on true life crimes? Find out when it hits Netflix on May 3. For all the biggest movies heading to theaters this year, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.

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Zac Efron Had Trouble Separating Himself From Ted Bundy In Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile

Zac Efron Had Trouble Separating Himself From Ted Bundy In Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile

Zac Efron will always be known for breaking into song as teen heartthrob Troy Bolton in the High School Musical movies, Link Larkin in Hairspray, or alongside Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in The Greatest Showman, among his other acting projects. Getting the catchy showtunes of his past out of his head was nothing compared to playing his darkest role yet, serial killer Ted Bundy.

During the recent London premiere of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile, the actor opened up about how portraying Bundy became a challenge due to its sinister subject. In his words:

I’ve never played a role in which I really have to separate myself from [him] when I go home at night, and it was almost impossible. I’d like to say that I did it successfully, but I couldn’t.

It’s no surprise that getting into the frame of mind to play a serial killer would mess with one’s head a bit, and Zac Efron experienced this firsthand while working on his upcoming Netflix project. The drama chronicles the crimes of the infamously attractive Bundy, who later confessed to 30 homicides he committed across the United States in the ‘70s.

In Zac Efron’s interview with Daily Mail at the premiere, he talked about his initial concern with taking on the dark role and why he ultimately decided to sign on to play Ted Bundy:

I really wasn’t interested in playing a serial killer, I’m not in the business of glamorizing a horrendous person or his acts, but there is something unique about the way we went into the psyche of Ted, and his longtime girlfriend Liz. It’s a different perspective and not your run-of-the-mill serial killer cliché -- body count gets higher and higher and oh the guy you always knew did it, did it.

Looks like Zac Efron was intrigued by the Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile script and how it tells the story from the perspective of Ted Bundy’s girlfriend Liz (played by Lily Collins). The film has been criticized for glamorizing the criminal with the casting of the former Disney teen idol, but the actor has previously explained the responsibility he feels to not celebrate the killer through the role. It’s instead meant to serve as a cautionary tale to the young generation who often mistakenly trust attractive men.

The film’s director Joe Berlinger (who also recently helmed Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: Ted Bundy Tapes) said he felt casting Zac Efron was an intentional choice geared toward the demographic crushing on actors such as Efron who may feel like he could do no wrong due to his good looks. Ted Bundy manipulated and lured women with his charm, so the film seeks to show this firsthand with Efron’s performance.

After premiering earlier this year at Sundance, the R-rated drama was purchased by Netflix for $9 million. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile will hit theaters and the streaming platform on May 3.

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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile Writer Explains Why The Netflix Movie Has No Actual Murder

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile Writer Explains Why The Netflix Movie Has No Actual Murder

Netflix’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is centered on an infamous Ted Bundy who confessed to 30 murders across the United States before being sent to the electric chair for his crimes. If you’ve seen the film starring Zac Efron though, you know it doesn’t classify as the gory slasher one might expect from a movie tracing the serial killer’s life.

This was intentional and there’s a good reason why. Here’s how the film’s writer Michael Werwie explained that creative choice:

I was compelled by all of the mundane domestic details of his life and I thought an interesting way into a serial killer's story would be to show no serial killing at all. I wanted to explore the love story of it all. This is more of a human side of the story. It’s about the people who had an emotional connection to Ted Bundy. This is about seduction, betrayal and it’s also about the truth. The emotional side of the story is what makes the movie different than the documentary.

While many movies of this subject matter have focused on the shocking crimes themselves, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is a study of the killer’s life outside his infamous murders. The film tells the story from the way his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth “Liz” Kloepfer, learned of his dark psyche. They met at a bar in 1969, fell in love and lived out a happy life with her daughter for many years before news of his crimes surfaced. Some have accused the film of glamorizing the killer but it’s telling the story through the eyes of someone who loved him.

Lily Collins, who plays Liz in the film and director Joe Berlinger visited Kloepfer prior to shooting the film. Berlinger said looking through the photo albums of skiing trips, camping and birthday parties that reminded him of his own memorabilia cemented the film’s direction to be from the perspective of Bundy’s home life with Liz.

The director had recently explored all the gruesome details of Bundy’s crimes in his documentary Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and wanted to go in another direction for the feature film. In his words to THR:

Conversations is much more of a clinical dissection of the terrible things he did. This movie is an emotional unwrapping of the level to which he was able to deceive, not just Elizabeth Kloepfer, but the American media that kind of made him into a perverse folk hero and the American judicious system.

The film also shows how the courts where Ted Bundy was being tried was lenient with him because of his clean-cut look and charisma. Bundy was allowed to represent himself as a defense attorney. He escaped from prison twice because of how careless the security was about him. Berlinger noted that if he’d been a person of color he wouldn’t have been able to get away with so much with the justice system that he did.

If the perspective was shifted to one full of violence and slaughters, the audience wouldn’t get the view of Ted Bundy everyone around him had. It’s not until the end when Liz accepts his crimes and confronts him in prison to confess to him do we see a moment of Bundy being capable of brutality on screen.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is available to stream on Netflix now, along with these new titles coming to the platform this month.

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