Zac Efron's Ted Bundy movie is on Netflix now. Here's what you need to know.

It’s no secret that true crime is completely addictive.

Despite the horror of Ted Bundy‘s crimes, new Netflix movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is undoubtedly hard to look away from.

But although the film, which dropped on May 3, has been popular among Netflix users, there’s no denying that it has left a bad taste in the mouths of many.

The trailer for the movie, which was released earlier this year, had many people wondering whether  the Ted Bundy film would brush over his ruthless murders by getting the tone completely wrong.

At the time, the trailer was labelled “insensitive” and a blatant glorification of a dangerous serial killer.

Watch the latest official trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile here. Post continues below…

“Why does the music seem so… happy? Is this not supposed to be a dark film? Feels lighthearted for the whole family,” one person wrote in the comments section of the YouTube trailer.

“I just hope the movie doesn’t glorify Bundy as the trailer is hinting,” another person wrote.

“This trailer is making it feel like a charming black comedy where we are supposed to like Ted in some way… but is that the point because he’s a master manipulator?” said another.

 

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Behind the scenes filming #extremelywickedshockinglyevilandvile – we filmed in a prison for 2 weeks- my “trailer” was an actual prison cell. Countdown to #Sundance

A post shared by Zac Efron (@zacefron) on Jan 3, 2019 at 5:49pm PST

Actor Zac Efron who appears in the film as Ted Bundy has not yet commented on the negative commentary surrounding the new movie, but he did release statements to Entertainment Tonight last year that touched on the same issues that fans have pointed out.

“I think the movie itself is really deep. It doesn’t really glorify Ted Bundy. He wasn’t a person to be glorified,” he explained to ET.

“It simply tells a story and sort of how the world was able to be charmed over by this guy who was notoriously evil and the vexing position that so many people were put in, the world was put in.”

The new movie stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy and Lily Collins as his girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer. It also features appearances from actors Jim Parsons, Kaya Scodelario, John Malkovich, and Haley Joel Osment.

The story is told from the perspective of Elizabeth Kloepfer, who dated Bundy for six years.

Who is Elizabeth Kloepfer?

After meeting in a Seattle bar, Elizabeth Kloepfer and Ted Bundy moved in together almost immediately.

Elizabeth, who changed her name to Liz Kendall after Bundy was caught, played a significant role in the Netflix documentary series, Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes as well as a major role in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

She also wrote a memoir called The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, detailing her tumultuous relationship with Bundy.

“I handed Ted my life and said, ‘Here. Take care of me’,” she wrote.

“He did in a lot of ways, but I became more and more dependent upon him. When I felt his love, I was on top of the world; when I felt nothing from Ted, I felt that I was nothing.

“We would be getting along fine and then a door would slam and I would be out in the cold until Ted was ready to let me back in. I’d spend hours trying to figure out what I had done or said that was wrong. And then, suddenly, he would be warm and loving again and I would feel needed and cared for.”

The couple stayed together for six years. After they had dated for about a year, Liz suggested to Bundy that they should get married. She was worried about what her conservative parents would think of her living with a man out of wedlock.

However, Bundy refused. He said if she was so worried about what her parents thought, she wasn’t ready to get married.

After they had broken up, and Bundy was finally captured in 1978, he used his only call to phone Liz.

“He told me that he was sick and he was consumed by something that he didn’t understand,” she said of their conversation in the third episode of Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.

“He just couldn’t contain it… he was preoccupied with this force.”

Liz would later recall how she had her suspicions about Bundy when they were together. The reports of the murders seemed to line up with the times Bundy would leave the house.

At one point, she actually tried to turn him into the police. The single mother approached the police and told them her boyfriend had a tendency to stalk women. She also told them she had found a bowl of women’s underwear, and a knife, in their house.

The police didn’t have enough to arrest Bundy at the time, and Liz stayed with him.

For more on this topic:

• The untold story of what happened to serial killer Ted Bundy's daughter, Rose Bundy.
• Liz Kloepfer met the love of her life in a bar. He turned out to be Ted Bundy.
• The little-known story of serial killer Ted Bundy's first girlfriend, Diane Edwards.
• The faces we should be remembering when we talk about Ted Bundy.
  

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is available to watch on Netflix now.