Conversations with a killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes Review

By: Hugh Brown

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, NY- It’s a strange occurrence when a show like the “Ted Bundy Tapes” becomes popular. People have a morbid fascination with this type of content. In a world where there are fears of horrible Craigslist Killers or sex traffic-ers, it’s interesting when people turn to a documentary that outlines such gruesome real-life events.

“The Ted Bundy Tapes” follows the events of serial killer Ted Bundy in the 1970s. After being convicted and sentenced to death, Bundy spoke to the FBI and laid out exactly how he did his killings. Listening to Bundy himself speak is frightening to say the least.

Hearing what he has done to these poor people is far worse than seeing it happen. We are rather accustomed to seeing gory violence in our media. It’s listening to descriptions of his murders from detectives, reporters and the killer himself that leaves the imagination running wild.

The series does a good job setting up the victims. As a college student, it’s easy to feel like you know his victims (mostly college students). It does, however, beg the question once again of why do college students love this series so much? Is it the thrill of the fear of the content, the same reason we go to see horror movies?

The four-episode miniseries feels a little long. Each episode is approximately an hour long, making it feel more like a lengthy film than a miniseries. Personally, while the show was frightening and very eye opening, I found myself enjoying reading the Ted Bundy Wikipedia page more. The Wikipedia page was in depth, but much shorter. I think “The Ted Bundy Tapes” could’ve been cut down into a far more interesting two-hour movie than a miniseries.

“The Ted Bundy Tapes” strikes me as a show you’d want to watch while folding laundry on a Sunday. I do not think it is interesting enough to go out of your way to watch, but enjoyment of media is subjective. Personally, I was much more entertained spending ten minutes on the Wikipedia page than the four hour series, but I will not argue that it was well made.