Ted Bundy (film)

Ted Bundy
Original film poster
Directed by	Matthew Bright
Produced by	Hamish McAlpine Michael Muscal
Written by	Stephen Johnston Matthew Bright
Starring	Michael Reilly Burke Boti Bliss
Music by	Kennard Ramsey
Cinematography	Sonja Rom
Editing by	Paul Heiman
Release date(s)	November 22, 2002
Running time	99 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$68,716

Ted Bundy is a 2002 film by American film director and writer Matthew Bright. The film dramatizes the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy. It stars Michael Reilly Burke in the title role, and Boti Bliss as Bundy's girlfriend, Lee (a character based on Elizabeth Kloepfer, Bundy's real life girlfriend during his killing spree).

Cast

• Michael Reilly Burke as Ted Bundy
• Boti Bliss as Lee (as Boti Ann Bliss)
• Steffani Brass as Julie
• Eric DaRe as Male Partygoer (as Eric Dare)
• Tricia Dickson as Barbara Vincennes (First Victim)
• Matt Hoffman as Arnie
• Tracey Walter as Randy Meyers
• Zarah Little as Patricia Garber (Victim)
• Julianna McCarthy as Professor
• Deborah Offner as Beverly
• Melissa Schmidt as Female Partygoer
• Jennifer Tisdale as Pretty Girl
• Michael Santos as Man at the Window
• Meadow Sisto as Suzanne Welch (School Victim)
• Alison West as Shawn Randall (Beach Victim)
• Anna Lee Wooster as Girl Attacked on Street
• Alexa Nikolas, Jesse James Rutherford, Oliver Kindred and Timothy Detersas "I'm Ted" Kid
• Natasha Goodman as Suzanne Moore (Last Victim)
• Danielle Parris as Hooded Executioner
• Katrina Miller as Jane Gilchrist (Cheerleader Victim)
• David Schroeder as Warden
• Tiffany Shepis as Tina Gabler (Kidnap Victim)
• Tom Savini as Salt Lake City Detective

Differences between film and real events

The film's fictionalized narrative takes many creative liberties, changing or conflating events and shifting their timing, as is common in Hollywood re-tellings of real-life events. Examples include:

• In the movie, Bundy says he flunked out of law school and psychology classes. In real life, while Bundy was indeed a poor law school student, he graduated with honors from the University of Washington as a psychology major.
• The "cheerleader" victim's name was Jane Gilchrist and there was no cheerleader victim in real life. In actuality, it was Debby Kent who was leaving a high school class play when Bundy snatched her.
• The film includes the murder of Caryn Campbell (in the ski resort) and Bundy's first arrest both taking place in 1976, when both those events took place in 1975.
• In the first prison escape, Ted is seen in the film exiting a window and onto a lower roof. He actually jumped directly from the window to the ground according to The Stranger Beside Me.
• In the film Bundy says Colorado authorities are "asking for the death penalty"; in actuality prosecutors there had decided not to ask for the death penalty in his case.
• During a scene in which Bundy took a victim from her home, the movie shows Bundy wrapping the victim in a large sheet and carrying her to his car. In the film, this was done in front of other witnesses on the street. Bundy stated to authors Michaud & Aynesworth that he was always careful about witness identification.
• In the film, Bundy's Volkswagen is yellow. In real life, it was tan.
• The final arrest of Bundy in 1978 for driving a stolen vehicle in Florida is shown happening beside a field in broad daylight. In real life, it took place in a residential neighborhood at 1:00 am.
• Bundy's execution in the film is carried out with inaccuracy, though it was accurate that Old Sparky was the electric chair used in both real life and film. In the film, Ted Bundy's colon was packed with cotton to avoid soiling, when in real life, at the time, this practice by the guards was discontinued. A flipped switch was used to operate the electric chair in the film for Bundy's execution, when in real life, the switch was actually a push of a button. While the film shows the hooded executioner as a female guard with long hair, the identity was anonymous in real life.
• The executioner depicted in the movie is a uniformed corrections officer and is visible to the condemned in the death chamber. The Florida Corrections Commission Report watched the film and said that the executioner was indeed a private citizen paid $150 for the execution and was present in the death chamber behind a screen obstructed from the view of the witnesses.
• Bundy hotwires a car in the film. In real life, he only found the keys inside it to steal the vehicle.
• Bundy's final victim was a girl doing rope skipping in a park named Susan Moore. In real life, the girl was Kimberly Leach. At the time Bundy murdered her, she was returning to the school gymnasium to retrieve her forgotten purse.
• The executioner gave Bundy one application of lethal current during the execution in the film. Florida procedures said that current is applied three times in real life.

External links

• Ted Bundy at the Internet Movie Database