cult film freak: NETFLIX 'CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES'

Written by James M. Tate / 7/04/2019 / No comments / 2019 , biopic , documentary , exploitation , netflix , serial killer

NETFLIX 'CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES'

7/04/2019 | No comment

This is the guy the media SO wants to be gorgeous! YEAR: 2019

"Ted was never as handsome, brilliant, or charismatic as crime folklore has deemed him." Ann Rule

Dude with no lips, a unibrow, a scruffy pubic perm, a ski-slope nose and a misshapen head has been described as a handsome guy throughout the years. Maybe because he's better looking than most serial killers, or what people think they would/should look like, or those depicted in movies like, you know, Leatherface, Ted Levine, Joe Spinell... But Ted Bundy is no Mark Harmon or Zac Efron...

This documentary, where the "in his own words" device is basically Ted denying he had anything to do with any of the murders... conducted five years before he'd strategically confess to possibly extend his death date... all while the interviewer tells us that Ted is lying to us, and him... Well let's just say it would have been a much more complete and relevant documentary had they added some of these latter, more honest recordings and yet, on the outside, Netlix's TED BUNDY TAPES is a pretty decent four-part timeline about the murders with the CONVERSATIONS added to grab the viewer, and ultimately mislead them...

This is a gorgeous man according to the media

Random closeups of Ted's creepy eyes as he rambles about the love of his life, or childhood reveries, doesn't do much more than manipulate an audience watching a documentary about an infamous manipulator...

Meanwhile, his Florida defense lawyers borderline brag that they could've easily gotten him off had he only stepped back, and let them do their work...

One lawyer claims Bundy was legally insane through the trial. And yet he was able to run his own defense (which the judge semi-complimented him on) while being fully capable of constantly lying and denying. Real psychopaths have nothing to deny, by the way. And while just doing their job, they were also discussing a guy who escaped (jailbreak) one state where he killed beautiful young women, and wound up in another state and killed more young beauties, and one little girl, twelve years old. Raped her, strangled her, and raped her some more before dumping the body into a rural pig shack. So it's not all that comfortable learning that he could have walked (the doc's editors are actually to blame here). And while everything Hollywood touches about killers attempts a sympathetic, human angle, there are limits... Or should be... After all, not only was Bundy a serial killer, he was Republican (and they went bonkers on the flashing images of Richard Nixon, who's far more showbiz-despised than any killer... what's slaughtering over thirty women compared to Watergate)!

Oh, okay, THIS is the one where he's hot... NOT! Score: ***

While not as sickening as the Efron biopic depicting Bundy as a sweet and simple babe in the woods, and "a babe" to look at, THE TED BUNDY TAPES does paint him in a better light than he deserves. And going back to the beginning...

He was no pinup. And hardly good looking. He wasn't ugly either. At best, he was average. A face in the crowd (which is how he successfully vanished into them). And the photos painting him in a "handsome" light were simply lucky angles. Paul Newman in his prime didn't get this much praise. Either did Zac Efron, for that matter. The lesson being, if you're constantly reminded that a particular person is "gorgeous" then there must be a reason to keep repeating what should be obviously obvious to begin with, right? Either way, this isn't like other reviews here. It's what's called a hider: Given a previous date so not to appear as a recent review to clutter the main page of more worthwhile reviews.