The Ted Bundy case is one of the most disturbing and shocking serial killer cases ever recorded, but it is also one of the most fascinating to true crime buffs.
The notorious killer has been the subject of several films and documantaries, includingExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - a biographical true crime drama film about the life of the mass murderer that was released on Netflix in 2019.
The biopic depicts the life of Bundy (Zac Efron), telling the story of his crimes, personal life and trial all from the perspective of his long-term girlfriend Liz Kendall (Lily Collins).
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You can view the full trailer here:
Based on Kendall's memoir The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, plenty of the events portrayed in the movie did also occur in real life.
This includes Bundy escaping custody twice, and the fact that he got married to old friend Carol Ann Boone (Kaya Scodelario) mid-trial.
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But one of the most chilling scenes is the final one, where Kendall visits Bundy in prison after she has fully moved on from him.
She tries to make Bundy admit to his murders as he is already on death row, also admitting that she gave Seattle police his name as a suspect in 1974, to start all of this.
Kendall begs him to explain why one of the victims was found beheaded with a photograph given to her by a detective.
He says nothing through the prison phone, instead fogging up the glass and writing 'hacksaw' with his finger, which is the first time he admits to any sort of guilt in the film.
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The haunting scene is looked at as one of the most powerful in the flick, taking place the same year he is set to be executed.
But director Joe Berlinger revealed to Digital Spy that the conversation didn't actually play out that way in real life.
He explained: "You know, I just felt that, particularly with the #MeToo era of accountability that we live in, you know, which I wholeheartedly support in the most fundamental way, I felt it was very important for this character to really hold him accountable; to make him, eye to eye, admit to her what he's done.
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"And so 95 percent of the film is extremely accurate. But that final scene is, you know, embellished for dramatic purposes. But it is based on a real conversation that had happened." Berlinger said.
He said that the movie was already full of telephone conversations and it would have been 'anticlimactic' to have yet another one.
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The director also highlighted that they couldn't fit all the key events in, so they had to 'compress it on a certain level'.
He gave an example: "The pregnancy of Carole Ann actually happened after he was on Death Row. They continued to have conjugal visits – you know, bribed conjugal visits – but they also had conjugal visits while the trial was happening.
"So the timing of the pregnancy was cheated a little bit. You know, at a certain point, you have to condense things. So that was a slight change of chronology."
Topics: Ted Bundy, Zac Efron, Netflix, True Crime, TV and Film
Joshua Nair