Zac Efron may be the Hollywood hunk of your dreams, but his latest project is about to make him the stuff of nightmares. A new trailer for Efron's Ted Bundy movie, titled Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil and Vile, has debuted ahead of its Netflix premiere in May and, man-oh-man, will it make you see this Hollywood heartthrob in a completely different (and much darker) light.
Efron lays on the creep factor as Bundy, a real-life serial killer who ultimately confessed to killing 30 women during his reign of terror in the 1970s, though the actual number of his victims is thought to be much higher than that, according to Biography.com. Bundy was known for using his charm and devilishly handsome looks to lure unsuspecting women into his orbit before kidnapping, killing, and sexually abusing them.
By that account it makes total sense to cast Efron in the role. If anyone ever stood a chance of making a serial killer look charismatic, it's him, after all. And while he does succeed to an extent, the actor also nails Bundy's dark and hallowed stare, indicating that underneath all of those seductive techniques lies the heart of a true monster. It's a side of Efron fans probably won't be able to unsee anytime soon.
But while Efron may steal the spotlight, the movie itself is meant to center around Liz Kloepfer (played by Lily Collins), who began dating Bundy in 1969 and how she began grappling with the notion that her boyfriend was a notorious serial killer. In fact, it was her suspicions of him that ultimately led to Bundy being caught, as reported by People. "Did you do these things, Ted?" Collins' Kloepfer asks in the trailer, though Efron's Bundy continues to assure her he's completely innocent. And while she doesn't seem to believe his lies, he definitely seems to have at least some people fooled.
Efron may be terrifying as Bundy, but what's even more scary is the amount of support the serial killer receives from the general public in the trailer. "I get really scared, but, you know, he's also really dreamy," one dreamy-eyed woman tells a reporter in the clip. It's a telling example of how blind people can be about someone's true nature if that person happens to be easy on the eyes. But as Efron proves, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
One year before Bundy's execution, the real Kloepfer wrote a memoir in 1988, called “The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy," according to The News Tribune. In it, she discussed their sever-year relationship and what it was that started making her suspicious of him in the first place. “Ted went out a lot in the middle of the night. And I didn’t know where he went," Kloepfer wrote in the book. "Then he napped during the day. And I found things, things I couldn’t understand."
In this new trailer, Collins' character is shown grappling with her own guilt, fearing that all of these murders are somehow her fault. But, of course, she's not to blame. There's no logic or reason behind these horrible acts of violence. So if you find yourself streaming this movie on Netflix in May, don't let Efron's charms overshadow the unforgivable crimes Bundy committed.
