I finally saw Bundy 2002, a dramatization of the life of serial killer Ted Bundy with Michael Reilly Burke in the title role. Previously the standard was the 1986 TV mini-series The Deliberate Strangerstarring Mark Harmon. Both versions give us a chilling representation of what Ted Bundy must have been like when he was on the loose.

It’s almost a shame Mark Harmon didn’t star in the updated version. His features seem to match Bundy’s more than any other actor–which I’m sure is not a compliment.

Michael Reilly Burke doesn’t look so much like Bundy, but I think he captures Bundy when no one was looking–that dark personality that slugged women over the head and dragged them out into the woods for his own pleasure. It’s harder to imagine Mark Harmon with his charming smile as the Bundy who would do that.

That is what made Ted Bundy unique among serial killers. He had good lucks and charm and could easily have had as many one night stands as he wanted, but something in him associated sex with violence. He could only climax when the other person was dying. If I were superstitious I would say he was possessed. It’s hard to explain a man who had no reason to kill and indulge in such depravity.

In Bundy 2002director Matthew Bright shows us the dysfunctional relationship Ted Bundy had with his on and off again girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall (she’s called Lee in the movie). The film does take dramatic license, but the scene where Lee allows Bundy to tie her up in what looks to be the most uncomfortable position and have sex with her while calling her horrid names is truly sick.

You could say that Bundy 2002 is an exploitation film, and I would agree; however, while The Deliberate Strangeris a more factual portrayal, Bundy 2002 captures the horror. Made for TV movies leave much to the imagination and with Bundy there was far more than murder going on. I read a handful of books on him and he was said to have returned to his dumping grounds and–I’m not intentionally trying to be gross–loose his seed into the skulls of former victims.

Bundy 2002 is also not a flattering film or a tribute to Ted Bundy. It not only exploits the Ted in the media, but also the personal Ted. In the opening shots it shows Ted as a shoplifter and Ted as the peeping tom in the bushes jerking off and getting water thrown on him.

Lastly, it shows the full execution of Ted in the electric chair–a scene that is not filled with sparks, but rather one where it is a quiet and embarrassing death for someone responsible for some many brutal killings. The director even adds insult to injury by showing the jailers stuffing Ted’s anal cavity with cotton and putting a diaper on him so he doesn’t release his digested dinner in front of the witnesses who have to see him die.

There will be more Ted Bundy films made as time goes on. He will become a legendary boogeyman much like other murderers from the past where the victims fall into the shadows and a mythology of evil emerges. He is also a clown and a failure as a human being who could not relate to women as sexual equals. I believe a cartoonish element will be added to the legend as well.

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