Chronicle of Zac Efron as Ted Bundy in the movie Netflix

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Netflix presented in January the four-part documentary titled "Conversations with a Killer: Ted Bundy's Tapes", launched in the midst of a mini-wave of projects devoted to what we've called " celebrity monsters ". The Bundy series was produced by veteran documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, who makes a rare foray into scripted entertainment by making this film, which derives its title from the way the Bundy trial judge characterized his murderous madness.

Shot sparingly, "Extremely Wicked" adheres closely to the facts. It is adapted from the book "The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy" by Elizabeth Kendall, of which Collins is the repository in the film.

By accentuating Kendall's point of view, the tone gets closer to that of a traditional Lifetime film, where a woman is shocked to discover a terrible secret about the man with whom she becomes involved.

Nevertheless, the disturbing aspects of Bundy's story – particularly the idea that he is "dreamy", as a spectator observes, are only exacerbated if Efron plays it.

As the focus is shared between Kendall and Bundy, the film is not particularly graphic. The narrative, in fact, a little discordant between ping-pongs – crossing the conversations of Bundy and Kendall, his initial faith in him and his later efforts to advance in his life, while recounting his time in jail, his new relationship with Carole Ann Boone (Kaya Scodelario) and a strange behavior as his own lawyer during the trial.

The main problem is that it is difficult to dramatize Bundy in this way without glorifying him one way or another – a problem from yesterday to today. The documentary and the film both emphasize that the audience room was filled with young women strangely attracted to the case, because of Bundy's beauty and the sordidness of her crimes.

Zac Efron and Lily Collins, right, stars of the movie Netflix

Efron not only has a striking resemblance to Bundy (the hairstyle is certainly useful), but he deftly captures the offbeat nature of his behavior. This does not necessarily elevate the material, but adds to the discomfort that concerns it.

This question of how the media describes serial killers, in particular, goes back decades, and the fascination for Bundy is hardly new. Mark Harmon starred in "The Deliberate Stranger," a 1986 television movie broadcast three years before Bundy's performance, at a time when network television was the preferred medium for this type of fare.

Netflix was nonetheless questioned about the abundance of violent content on the service, including a Washington Post article titled "Does Netflix Have a Deadly Problem?"

In his statement, his director, Berlinger, notes that Bundy's trial was the first to be televised on national television and that the case "turned mass murder into a national television show". From that moment, recalling the appetite for real crime, he said: "The tone of the film is a reflexive reflection on the dangers of treating murderers as a traditional entertainment."

Frankly, this argument seems as questionable as it is interested. But there's really someone to blame for the real crime wave in general, and Ted Bundy's party in particular, everyone – from those who watch these projects to, yes, those who write about them – might want to start by looking in the mirror.

"Extremely nasty, shocking and bad" is presented on May 3 on Netflix and in some cinemas.

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