Chad Michael Murray stars as the newest iteration of serial killer Ted Bundy in Dark Star Pictures’ Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman, which comes out today on VOD and DVD. The question is — do we really need another movie about Bundy? I, like many others, find serial killers fascinating, but it’s hard to do something new when it comes to one of America’s most fascinating killers.
In this movie version of the infamous 1970s serial killer, detective Kathleen McChesney is trying to hunt down Bundy, along with the help of a rookie FBI profiler, Robert Ressler. The movie begins after Bundy has already began killing and doesn’t do a great job on the backstory or inciting fear about this very dangerous man.
In fact, nothing about the movie was scary at all (except maybe one particular scene involving mannequins, a knife stroking a radiator, and lots of very odd behavior, but that’s for an entirely different reason). The pacing was off and it made the timeline seem wonky. The acting was, a struggle, but not solely because of the actors. They had little to work with in the script. And there was little to no character development with any of the major players, making it difficult to care about what happened next. In fact, nothing about the movie seemed to be executed properly. I wanted to like it, I really did. Maybe they realized they weren’t saying anything new with this movie and just gave up. It begs the question, why exactly was this movie made? What was their intention? With such a history and topic as Ted Bundy, it’s surprising that you come away not knowing what the purpose of this movie even was.
While the movie wasn’t quite painful to watch (I think it would actually make for a pretty fun drinking game), I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it. The best part of the whole film was Lin Shaye (you’ll recognize her from the Insidious movies) as Ted Bundy’s mom, who unfortunately didn’t have a significant amount of screen time.
If you’re looking for something to raise the hairs on your necks this Fall, opt instead for 2019’s Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes on Netflix.
