Bundy: A Legacy of Evil (2009)

Bundy: A Legacy of Evil regards, funnily enough, the life of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy.
It chronicles his path from confused youngster to mentally ill mass murderer. This is also one of the most fundamentally unwatchable films I have ever had the displeasure to review.
Bundy… isn’t just a bad movie, it is a morally questionable movie.

Bundy… is a film that exploits real human tragedy by not engaging with its subject matter properly. The screenwriter has obviously put a certain amount of effort into researching Bundy’s life in order to explain his deranged actions. However, the script is so badly written that the whole thing just comes across as grossly distasteful. Bundy himself is presented as a fidgety, irritating, little sh*t of a man that can barely string a sentence together. If this was how the real Ted Bundy acted then he would never have been able to charm all of those unfortunate victims into his murderous clutches.

Ted Bundy represents the most disturbing and depraved parts of the human psyche, but in this film he is condensed into a whiney suburban casualty with a grudge against God.
His progressively awkward behaviour is attributed to his troubled upbringing and sexual impotence. This eventually leads to psychopathic tendencies, but the motivations are never convincing.
Maybe it’s because of the poor acting, maybe it’s because of the appalling script or maybe it’s just because this is a badly constructed, offensive piece of tripe, but nothing in this film seems to fit. With each passing scene the film becomes progressively lazier until it eventually gives up entirely on narrative continuity and instead focuses on cheap, bloody thrills in order to keep the audience interested.

Even more disappointingly, the most interesting aspects of Bundy’s life are only mentioned in passing; Dr. James Dobson (for example) is criminally passed over. Dobson was the evangelical nut job who shared an odd, symbiotic relationship with Ted Bundy. Their televised interview played out like a disturbing infomercial. Bundy displayed desperation to be loved as a celebrity and Dobson used Bundy as an example of what a man could turn into under the ‘ungodly influence of pornography’. Dobson and Bundy fed off of each others charisma which created a repulsive yet fascinating broadcast.
They were both monsters in their own right…so why skip over this pivotal moment in Bundy’s ‘career’? Well it’s most likely because the screenwriter didn’t have the iron to interact with such rich and intense subject matter.

Here in lies the problem. The filmmakers want you to understand Bundy; they want you to see him as a normal man at war with himself and his God. But because of the reluctance to interact with Bundy’s life in a genuinely substantial manner, he comes across as a fake, a deluded actor who wallows in his own self pity whilst the world around him points and laughs. Corin Nemic – our Bundy for the duration of the film – seems to be playing the role for laughs rather than for any real, emotional payoff. It’s all just a bit pathetic really.

At best Bundy… is a crappy psycho thriller, at worst it’s a hugely immoral exploitation of genuine human suffering. There is nothing wrong with making a film based on real events, but if you’re going to do it then you had better engage with the subject matter properly.

Quite simply put, this movie has no redeeming features. It is a piece of garbage.

Movie Rating:  

Trailer: