Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Netflix | Release Date: May 3, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 1, 2019
In my judgment, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is an honestly unsettling and authentic inquiry into the question of who Ted Bundy was, how he operated, what his capture and trial and ongoing infamy has meant, and what, if anything, his existence tells us about our individual relationship to toxic evil. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMay 3, 2019
Refusing to explain Ted Bundy is the strongest possible choice Berlinger could have made because it destabilizes reality. The film itself gaslights us, and this is where Berlinger and Zac Efron — an inspired choice—are powerful co-creators. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 1, 2019
More sad than salacious, it’s the rare film about a criminal that offers human details without humanizing a man who so many agree was a monster. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 1, 2019
It’s quite a story, which Berlinger moves along with unrelenting energy. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 9, 2019
If you want to see a solid movie about Bundy as mostly experienced through the viewpoint of the single mother who fell in love with him without knowing he was a murderer, check out the Netflix feature film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Vile and Evil. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 4, 2019
What makes it more than a slick impersonation of sociopathy, though, is the layers he peels — Bundy’s desperation, his endless calculations and longing for connection. He also has some great interplay with John Malkovich, as the Tallahassee judge who engages in a sort of folksy, combative back-and-forth with him in court that nearly verges on buddy comedy. Read full review
75
UproxxVince ManciniFeb 1, 2019
Extremely Wicked‘s portrayal yawns with a sense of incompleteness. Read full review
70
TheWrapCarlos AguilarFeb 1, 2019
“Extremely Wicked” winds up a thought-provoking piece of cinema that avoids the easy temptation of shock value in favor of a more philosophical take on a diabolical murderer. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMatthew PassantinoFeb 1, 2019
At times, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is all about the performances because the movie itself struggles a bit with settling on a tone. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMay 5, 2019
But while the period details are slavishly recreated, there’s an absence when it comes to character details for the two women, particularly Bundy’s wife, Carole Ann Boone (Scodelario). Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerMay 2, 2019
Extremely Wicked wobbles between its two best, but unfortunately, contrasting features: Efron’s eerily seductive performance, and the psychological experience of loving a camouflaged monster. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsApr 29, 2019
Efron gambles with his image, but he knows when to up the star power. It’s perhaps fitting that the film falls flat when he, playing a killer who loved the spotlight, leaves the screen. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 1, 2019
If all we’re really taking from a movie about a man who murdered 30-plus women is “Zac Efron sure is surprising,” then I don’t think that movie has earned its existence. Yes, it is all shockingly wicked and evil and vile. Shouldn’t we maybe just leave it at that? Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 1, 2019
It’s a star vehicle that starts and ends with its star, the film around him struggling to justify its existence. Efron is wicked, the film less so. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 1, 2019
Dramatically speaking, it’s a failed thought experiment—you get, watching it, why no one has really told this kind of story in this way. But it’s still hard not to admire the film’s perversely un-perverse strategy, its good-faith attempt to do something more than simply trot out the awful, salacious details. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupFeb 1, 2019
As an oddity of the serial killer genre, some of Berlinger’s choices ring more as engagingly strange than unsuccessful. Read full review
55
IGNRafael MotamayorFeb 7, 2019
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile has some interesting ideas about how little we know the people we love, and about the power of a celebrity cult status. But no matter how good Zac Efron’s performance as Ted Bundy is, this is the tamest way to explore such a complex and interesting story. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMay 3, 2019
Extremely Wicked is let down by a shaky mixture of tones, and a fairly hokey presentation of its time period. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 2, 2019
If the idea was to tell the story from Liz’s perspective, the movie botches that perspective badly: Abandoning any sense of narrative rigor, it can’t keep hunky, charming Ted from becoming the protagonist of his own hideous story. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 2, 2019
In his second film as a feature director, following the mess that was "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2," Berlinger loses his way in a game of let’s pretend that ends in a tangle of tonal shifts and missed opportunities. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckMay 1, 2019
Some have argued that the film glorifies its subject. It doesn’t, really. But it doesn’t explain him, either. And that leads to another question, which is, if there’s nothing really new to say about Ted Bundy, need we be saying anything? Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaFeb 1, 2019
If the narrative film only exists to give us the unsettling sliminess of Efron as Bundy, it won’t be a total waste. But it’s not much of a movie, either. Read full review
40
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMay 3, 2019
Extremely Wicked gives off the distinct impression that it finds Bundy far more fascinating than anyone who suffered at his hands. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 2, 2019
The much-vaunted fresh perspective on a notorious figure turns out to have been so much sweet talk. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 2, 2019
There is something basically unsatisfactory about this glassy-eyed biopic of the satanic dreamboat Bundy. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 2, 2019
Working ostensibly from the viewpoint of Bundy’s longtime girlfriend, Liz Kendall (an excellent Lily Collins), [Director] Berlinger never fully commits. Instead, he appears as seduced by Bundy as virtually everyone else in the movie. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 1, 2019
Zac Efron projects the right amount of edgy, empty handsomeness, but the movie’s conceit doesn’t pay enough dividends — especially when trying to reconcile Bundy’s distortions of reality with the actual terror he caused in the 1970s. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 1, 2019
The film essentially indulges in the same act of willful distractedness as Ted Bundy’s admirers. Read full review
33
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeb 1, 2019
A superficial tale about the casualty at the center of the story, Extremely Wicked, rings hollow and false and is really just as interested in the sensational and salacious as any other reductive thriller. Read full review
25
ObserverOliver JonesMay 1, 2019
Add to the long-winded title of this film, “…and completely unnecessary.” Read full review
20
The AtlanticDavid SimsMay 5, 2019
Berlinger’s latest film attempts to reckon with the legacy of a brutal murderer who cynically cultivated his public image to make himself seem more alluring, but the story fails to dig in to the horrifying implications of how Bundy was able to succeed. Read full review
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