CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES

US, 2019, 210 minutes, Colour
Directed by Joe Berlinger.

Writer-director, Joe Berlinger, is an award-winning documentary maker. But, he also made the feature film, a companion piece to these documentary studies about Ted Bundy, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (starring Zac Efron as the serial killer).

There are four episodes in this series, very well researched, offering a great deal of data, contemporary footage, interviews, developments of police procedures at the time, the detection work to uncover Bundy.

The impact of the film will depend on audience knowledge of Bundy himself and his killings in the late 70s and early 1980s, the court cases, his imprisonment, his eventual execution in 1989. For those aware of Bundy, this offers comprehensive information and understanding. For those who have not been aware of Bundy, it will be probably quite shocking, the probing of the psyche of such an externally charming man – with the title of the first chapter, Handsome Devil.

The series offers a great deal of information about Bundy, his background, his family, his behaviour as a boy, his studies, the religious background. It is hard to tell whether there are were indications when he was young of what he would do.

There are many interviews with the police, those investigating the crimes at the time, the detectives and their work. The film then works step-by-step over the years gradually exposing Bundy. There are interviews with family, especially parents, his wife.

The film details a number of the cases, footage of the women who were his victims, information about his whereabouts, manipulating situations, the brutality of the deaths and his treatment of the bodies of the women. And, he murdered the women in various states, eventually investigations linking up and connections made. At the time, there was an atmosphere of fear in those areas, the selection of the victims from ordinary young women.

Bundy himself appears right throughout the series, presentable, smart, denying everything, drawing on some legal studies, a certain vanity and self-assurance in his defence of himself and the confrontations with the police. Eventually, suspicions were narrowed and he was arrested. He exploited the media, expressing his opinions, his flair and behaviour in court, his self-defence and drawing on others to support him.

The title of the feature film by Berlinger draws on the verdict of the trial judge that his behaviour was extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile.

The last episode in the series focuses on Bundy in prison, interviewers getting his confidence, his gradually admitting to what he had done and providing information. Finally, Bundy was executed.