- 1
The 2019 biographical crime thriller - based on Ted Bundy's former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall's memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy - features the talented Zac Efron in the role of Bundy.
While the Netflix joint was widely panned by critics, Efron delivered a great performance as the lead.
- Released: 2019
- Directed by: Joe Berlinger
- 2
In 1980, Seattle Times reporter Richard W. Larsen published the book Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger, which focused on Ted Bundy's many crimes. Six years later, the charming Mark Harmon (NCIS) starred in the made-for-TV adaptation on NBC.
The movie dives right into Bundy's murder of Georgann Hawkins, and it follows his activity through Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Although the movie was released while Ted Bundy sat on death row, the real-life serial killer refused to see it.
- Released: 1986
- Directed by: Marvin J. Chomsky
- 3
One of two 2021 Bundy-centered movies, this one - written by C. Robert Cargill (Doctor Strange) - features a terrific and icy performance as Bundy by the actor Luke Kirby, who stars across from Elijah Wood, playing an FBI analyst named Bill Hagmaier.
Based on transcripts from conversations between Hagmaier and Bundy from 1984 to 1989, this movie comments on both Bundy's roguish charm and the media's exploitation of Bundy with little regard for his victims.
- Released: 2021
- Directed by: Amber Sealey
- 4
Trey Parker - 'South Park'
Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay BergmanSouth Park has featured practically every name in pop culture at one point or another, and Ted Bundy is no exception.
In the Season 10 episode "Hell on Earth 2006," Bundy shows up alongside Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy in a Three Stooges-inspired story revolving around Satan throwing a costume party for Halloween. Like many characters on South Park, Bundy was voiced by Trey Parker, one of the show's creators.
- Released: 2006
- Directed by: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
- 5
In the 2004 A&E TV movie The Riverman, Cary Elwes stars as Bundy in an adaption of Robert Keppel's non-fiction book, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer.
While the movie focuses on a criminology professor profiling the serial killer, he eventually ends up one-on-on with Elwes's Bundy, who confesses to some of the unsolved murder cases. This allows the audience to view Bundy through his own eyes.
- Released: 2004
- Directed by: Bill Eagles
- 6James Marsters, Sharon Lawrence, James Russo
A two-part TV movie, The Capture of the Green River Killer stars James Marsters as Bundy. Upon premiering, the movie was one of the most-watched telecasts on the Lifetime Movie Network.
The story focuses on the Green River serial murders that took place between 1982 and 1988, and much like in The Riverman, Bundy shows up to offer his "unique" perspective to the police. While the movie is largely a bore, Marsters shines and gives life to an otherwise droll, meandering script.
- Released: 2008
- Directed by: Norma Bailey
- 7
Matthew Bright's 2002 film Ted Bundy starts off during Bundy's days as a law student. The title role is portrayed by Michael Reilly Burke (Mars Attacks!), whose staid and sociopathic performance is the highlight of the movie.
The origin story follows Bundy as he begins his murder sprees, but unfortunately, the film takes plenty of liberties and focuses on Bundy's shock factor rather than the tragedy of his victims' stories.
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Matthew Bright
- 8
Corin Nemec plays Ted Bundy in Bundy: An American Icon (also known as Bundy: A Legacy of Evil), a 2008 exploitative horror flick focused on Bundy’s troubled childhood, his criminal career, and his trial.
Some have said of the film that Nemec looks too old to play Bundy, but the former Stargate SG-1 actor amps up the fear factor in this installment of Michael Feifer's paint-by-numbers serial killer film series (Ed Gein, BTK and The Boston Strangler), following in the footsteps of the Kane Hodders and David Faustinos who came before him.
- Released: 2008
- Directed by: Michael Feifer
- 9Barbara Hershey, Billy Campbell, Kevin Dunn
The Stranger Beside Me is one of the most well-known true crime books about Ted Bundy and was penned by Ann Rule in 1980, who knew Bundy in real life.
The biographical account was made into a movie in 2003 and starred Billy Campbell as Bundy. Featuring two stupendous lead performances from Campbell and Barbara Hershey, this movie might be the best of the made-for-TV Bundy endeavors, if only for the recherché female point of view injected into the male-centric genre.
- Released: 2003
- Directed by: Paul Shapiro
- 10
Adam Long - 'Ted Bundy: Serial Monster'
Adam Long, Douglas Lippi, Hailey GarciaThe two-part 2018 docudrama-style crime series Ted Bundy: Serial Monster took a deep look into Ted Bundy’s life. In the segment's fictionalized events, actor Adam Long, who you may recognize from Deadwood: The Movie, is tasked with playing the infamous killer.
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Andrew Kappel
- 11Chad Michael Murray, Holland Roden, Greer Grammer
One of two Bundy movies released in 2021, Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman focuses on an FBI agent and a detective searching for the killer in the 1970s. The film stars Chad Michael Murray as Bundy and was directed by Daniel Farrands, who also directed 2019's The Haunting of Sharon Tate.
Many have derided the film as "unremarkable" and "in bad taste," but if the film proves anything, it's that Bundy's story won't be going away as long as there's a buck to be made off of his name.
- Released: 2021
- Directed by: Daniel Farrands
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