Bundy: A Legacy of Evil   Starring: Corin Nemec Lionsgate Home Entertainment RRP: £12.99 LGD94154 Certificate: 18 Available 14 September 2009

The shocking true story of Ted Bundy who murdered numerous young women between 1974 and 1978. A graduate in psychology, who was also involved in politics and law, he used his charm, good looks and intelligence to coerce women into his VW Bug before bludgeoning them to death. He escaped from prison twice before his final apprehension in February 1978. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, he eventually confessed to 30 murders, although the actual total of victims remains unknown. Estimates range from 29 to over 100, the general estimate being 35. Ted Bundy proved to be one of the most dangerous and notorious serial killers in the history of America before being convicted and sent to the electric chair in 1989...

Bundy: A Legacy of Evil is a bit of a missed opportunity. It's the sort of made for TV movie that is only going to appeal to those that already know the history of Bundy's killing spree. Anyone who's heard the name, but not really sure who he was or how he chose his victims, will find this film very confusing.

I'll never understand the fascination for serial killers. Would a movie be made about a pedophile killer? Not likely as the public outcry would be incredible - and quite rightly so. But for some reason a man who kills young women and then has sex with their dead bodies seems to be good old fashioned wholesome entertainment. Why do millions of people find serial killers so intriguing and not in the same league as pedophiles?

This movie crisscrosses Bundy's life from his early years to his final execution, but it doesn't actually tell you how many people he's supposed to have killed. While we witness a few of his attacks, these are dotted around all over the place and it's hard to fathom when he started killing. Was it straight after his girlfriend told him he was a child? Was that the straw that broke the camel's back?

The film also seems to take it's own artistic licence with Bundy's life. Did he really howl like a wolf after killing one of his victims? Did he leave his girlfriend in a restaurant after proposing to her? Was he so great while working as an operator at a suicide hotline that people instantly trusted him? And did he struggle and break down as he was led to the electric chair? Or was this used to show that crime doesn't pay?

It doesn't really give you an insight into Bundy's mind or how he chose his victims. To be fair this feels like a lazy serial killer movie which has been shaped slightly so that Bundy's name could be attached to it in order to sell more copies. A deeply disappointing movie which neither entertains nor informs.

2

Darren Rea