Rental Review: Ted Bundy

By Ryn Gargulinski
Even 18 years after being electrocuted, Ted Bundy is still a fascination. This flick seethes with his cunning, his violence, his charm. It also oozes with gore depicting his murder spree that may have taken the lives of some 150 women.

Bundy is the reason the term “serial killer” was first coined.

The really cool 1970s clothes and culture just add to the intrigue of the film, as do the loving girlfriend who is blind to his aberration and his ability to hoist a body wrapped in a sheet down the street past four passers-by and a dog.

Bundy, who was charming enough to even have true crime master Ann Rule wondering if he were really a killer, continues to charm in his horrific way, mainly because he had a grand façade of appearing like a harmless handsome man.

That is, until you got into a car with him.

Fast Bundy facts:
*More than 200 women per day wrote him letters in prison to say they were in love with him.
*He drove a yellow Volkswagen bug.
*My friend Mark served him dinner in 1977 when he worked at a Seattle restaurant. He said FBI agents were in the door with questions right after Bundy left.
*When people are about to be electrocuted, prison officials stuff cotton up their butt so they don’t soil themselves and the electric chair.

Highlight: The one who got away.
Lowlight: The blinded by love girlfriend.
Rating (1-10): 2,200 or the number of volts in an effective electric chair

Rental Review: Boston Strangler

By Ryn Gargulinski
He killed at least 11 women, sending 1960s Boston into a frenzy of locked doors, bolted windows and peepholes working overtime.

But they still let him in.

This flick is a compelling look at one of the most notorious serial killers of the century, at least before Manson.

Unlike some other true crime movies, this one doesn’t get bogged down with pseudo drama or stupidity. It’s straight-up intrigue and, although made in the 1990s, has that 1960s flavor.

It also explores mental illness without all that psychobabble. The viewer is even treated to a credible rendition of strangler Albert DeSalvo slowly losing his mind.

Highlight: The kitschy 1960s feel.
Lowlight: Being terrified that you, too, might be a paranoid schizophrenic and, like DeSalvo, not even know it.
Rating (1-10): 29.5