<span>Whe</span><span>n filmmaker Joe Berlinger turned his attention to one of America's most notorious serial killers, the first thing he did was </span><span>phone his two college-age daughters. "I</span><span> asked, 'Do you know who Ted Bundy is?' And neither of my daughters did." </span><span>Nor did their friends. </span><span> </span> <span>Perhaps it's no surprise</span><span>, since Bundy, who raped and murdered </span><span>more than </span><span>30 women in the 1970s, was </span><span>executed </span><span>three decades ago. But it was enough to convince Berlinger that his daughters' </span><span>generation needed to learn the lessons </span><span>of Bundy. </span><span>"</span><span>They can't be overstated," he says. "Simply because somebody looks and acts a certain way, it doesn't mean they're worthy of your trust</span><span>." </span> <span>The result was two </span><span>Bundy projects. After </span><span>creating the </span><span>four-part Netflix documentary </span><span><em>Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes</em></span><span>, </span><span>which compris</span><span>es hours of audio interviews between journalist Stephen Michaud and the killer when he was in</span><span> jail, Berlinger </span><span>has </span><span>delivered a Bundy feature film.</span> <span><em>Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile – </em></span><span>a title that stems from the summation of the judge</span><span> (John Malkovich) </span><span>when Bundy was </span><span>convicted – stars Zac Efron as the killer. Casting the former </span><span><em>High School Musical</em></span><span> star </span><span>was </span><span>nothing short of inspiring. "Here's a guy whose real</span><span>-life persona for a certain demographic is he can do no wrong," says Berlinger. "Everywhere we go for this movie, there are </span><span>hundreds of people who love Zac. They</span><span> implicitly trust him</span><span>, because of how he looks, because of how he acts, because of who he is."</span> <span>Efron</span><span> had never considered playing a killer before, but this role was different. "It's not a procedural where the body count stacks up and then we find out it's Ted Bundy," </span><span>the actor says.</span> <span>Instead, the story is </span><span>told from the perspective of</span><span> Elizabeth Kloepfer (</span><span>Lily Collins), Bundy's long-term girlfriend who was </span><span>unaware of </span><span>the horrifying crimes he committed. Her unsparing account of her life with Bundy</span><span><em>, The Phantom Prince: My Life With Ted Bundy</em></span><span> (written under the name </span><span>Elizabeth Kendall), provides the basis for Berlinger's film.</span> <span>Efron </span><span>was </span><span>vaguely </span><span>aware of Bundy, but he soon </span><span>learnt </span><span>what </span><span>the killer's name meant to older generations. </span><span>Efron recalls telling his mother </span><span>he was considering a biopic for his next project. When</span><span> he told her who the subject was, she stopped dead in her tracks. "She said, 'Did you</span><span> say Ted Bundy?' I was like, 'Yeah.' She said, '</span><span>And you will</span><span> play Ted Bundy?' The terror in her eyes was one of the motivating factors</span><span> for taking the role," Efron says.</span> <span>The film</span><span><em> </em></span><span>was also a</span><span> change of direction for Berlinger, who has spent the majority of his career as a documentary filmmaker </span><span>with a focus on tales of </span><span>dubious convictions. His masterful </span><span><em>Paradise Lost</em></span><span> trilogy cover</span><span>s the case of the West Memphis Three</span><span>, </span><span>who were </span><span>jailed for the murders of three boys in Arkansas</span><span>, while </span><span><em>Killing Richard Glossip</em></span><span> </span><span>focuses on the fate of the eponymous Oklahoma resident, who</span><span> is on death row.</span> <span>"What is a wrongfully convicted person? It's somebody who is actually innocent but the rest of the world thinks is guilty, but Bundy was exactly the opposite," says Berlinger. "He was a guy who was actually guilty, but so many people around him thought he was innocent and </span><span>incapable of these kinds of crimes</span><span>."</span><span> </span> <span>Handsome and charismatic, Bundy </span><span>even had friends at the Mormon Church who protest</span><span>ed his innocence when he was first arrested. "He eluded capture for a long time because of his demeanour</span><span>," Berlinger says. Showing little of Bundy's violence against women, </span><span>the director treads carefully in </span><span><em>Extremely Wicked</em></span><span>.</span><span><em> </em></span><span>"Even though it's very salacious material – this is America's most notorious serial killer, who raped and murdered dozens of women and </span><span>did all these horrible things – it's not the salacious aspect of it that attracted me," he says.</span> <span>Rather, </span><span>Berlinger wanted to put young</span><span> people on alert for what he calls "Bundy</span><span>-type people". In an age whe</span><span>n people frequently pose as others to fool </span><span>people on the internet, th</span><span>e dangers of misjudging people have already been made clear</span><span>. Berlinger cites </span><span>the murder of </span><span>American student Samantha Josephson, 21, who was stabbed </span><span>and killed in Columbia, South Carolina, in March after </span><span>getting into a car she believed was </span><span>an Uber</span><span>. "We live in a world where people pretend to be one thing when they're not</span><span>," Berlinger says.</span> <span>Efron </span><span>is all too aware how dishonest some people can be</span><span>. "I've </span><span>met some people who seem to be one thing</span><span>, and you get to know them that you find out through another party that they're not even that person</span><span>," he says.</span> <span>That's why he wanted to explore Bundy's duplicitous nature. "I want people to realise the depth of deception and experience it as I have. </span><span>I would love to </span><span>save people from </span><span>going through that</span><span>," he says.</span> <span>While Berlinger </span><span>describes his </span><span><em>Conversations With a Killer </em></span><span>documentary as "a deep dive into the mind of a psychopath", he </span><span>says </span><span><em>Extremely Wicked</em></span><span> is more subjective. "What I hope happens for the audience is that I give them the same experience as the people who were betrayed by Bundy</span><span>," he says.</span> <span>Chief among</span><span> them</span><span> is Kloepfer. "</span><span>Everyone will wonder for the rest of time</span><span> why Ted didn't do this to Liz?" </span><span>Efron says. "</span><span>We will never know."</span> <span><em>Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile </em></span><span><em>is in cinemas across the UAE</em></span><span><em> from today</em></span>