PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Ironically, some people who aren’t into horror usually like films and documentaries about serial killers. There seems to be a narrow sweet spot between the genre and true crime, where there’s only enough room for the likes of Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, and maybe the most famous, Ted Bundy. Netflix recently released The Ted Bundy Tapes. It was a documentary series peppered with actual recordings of Bundy answering quetsions. It hit a nerve because of how normal and rational Bundy sounded, and how we all want to believe people aren’t as bad as they seem to be. It’s pretty easy to think that Charles Manson is a raving lunatic, but a good looking guy in a turtleneck and a blazer just has to have an appropriate level of normalcy about him. So, who’s the perfect person to play him in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile? How about the guy from the Baywatch movie and High School Musical?
Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger’s (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory 2011) Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile comes to Netflix on May 3rd, and stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy. Unlikely casting for sure, and that has caused controversy in the familiar concern of glamorizing the absolute worst humanity has to offer. Then again, if you go back far enough, another guy who was easy on the eyes blazed the serial killer’s trail long before Efron did. NCIS’s Mark Harmon starred in The Deliberate Stranger back in 1986 prior, to Bundy’s execution in 1989.
Efron could be great in the role. It’s twofold in allowing him to show his versatility as an actor, and propagating the unusual dichotomy that Bundy had of being horribly disturbed but outwardly attractive, and using it a way no other serial killer ever could. Netflix believes in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. They secured the rights for $9 million and won out over STX and Lionsgate. Additional cast includes: Lily Collins (Les Miserable TV series), Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory TV series), Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense 1999), and John Malkovich (Red franchise, Velvet Buzzsaw 2019). Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile comes to Netflix on May 3.
