🟥 Ted Bunny (2026) Review - Even Serial Killers Live With Their Parents in 2026 | Film Waffle

Ted Bunny (2008) directed by Michael Fredianelli

Hmm. Well that certainly was something.

Here I was hoping for a Five Nights at Freddy's prequel, and this is what I get. Not a story about William and Michael Afton but one about Ted Bundy and his "spawn".

Bro.

Quick Summary

Ted Bunny follows the story of Sasha, an aspiring documentary filmmaker who has yet to break into the industry. Girl, you and me both.

Her latest attempt at forging said career takes her to the house of Catherine Something-or-Other. Catherine claims to be one of the last survivors of Ted Bundy's 1970s killing spree. 

In fact, Catherine goes all Rosemary's Baby on us and claims that she birthed Ted Bundy's demon spawn after he sexually assaulted her all those years ago. Whatever the case, her child is now a bunny hood wearing maniac channeling in his inner Majora's Mask Twitch streamer and speedrunning a murder spree of his own.

All righty.

That's quite the setup. And, in fact, I don't hate it. There are lots of things to work with and explore. 

Is Catherine telling the truth? Would she purposefully lie? Did she tell this so-called child about his father? Good questions, and personally, I love me some crime horror, so this premise held a lot of promise for me.

Story & Characters

First, the opening scene. It's surprisingly not bad. What we get is a flashback to Ted Bundy doing a murder in the past. Who is the victim? God knows. But it's a great application of show don't tell for people that don't know who tf Ted Bundy is. Enjoy it while it lasts.

After that, we get into the movie proper and, oh boy.

The dialogue. It's real bad. Especially for the guys hoooollllyyyy.

The cast are supposed to be college graduates or older, but their actions sound make them sound like bratty high school freshmen. Like, dude, why are you snickering and cracking jokes in someone's face as they are recounting a rape story? 

I get that making people horrible is a hallmark of slashers. The point being to make it more satisfying when they get the axe. But this is too over-the-top. It took me out. I'm not getting "I wanna see this guy die" vibes, but "This is cringe, and I wanna turn this movie off" vibes. You know what I mean?

We also get some lovely exposition from our aforementioned main girlie, Sasha.

"This is my seventh film, and I need to make this work. I haven't hit the mark since I graduated. I'm $20,000 in debt and have daddy issues."

Calm down with that, Esmeralda. Save the trauma dumping for later. Or at least learn to spread it out. Strangely, this frontloading is pretty much all the background we get on our main character. Well, that and some baffling dream sequences near the end of the film.

Less telling. More showing. C'mon. This started strong, so I know you all can do it.

When the body counts started tallying, I was more amused than terrified. There's this one bit where a guy is waving his phone around in the killer's lair, and he exclaims: "I don't have any service!"

My dude, you're one moldy floorboard away from the place you just were, and your phone worked fine then.

Later on the killer slices open a guy right in front of his work spouse. Instead of running, the work spouse kneels down to help the dead dude as guts and viscera pour out. 

"OMG! Are you okay?! Do you need a Band-Aid!?" 

Meanwhile the killer is stood there. Leering over the dude. Filing his tax return and sanding down his fingernails before channeling his inner Lizzie Borden.

My favorite is this one bit where an idiot flails around with a revolver. It goes off and some poor girl that was randomly introduced five minutes prior gets shot in the leg. Had me fucking HOWLING, dude. Laughed my ass off. Was the one time in the movie where I was properly entertained.

Slap some Benny Hill music onto that shit.

There's lots of other writing criticisms I have as well. 

The cop is an NPC. 

~ Start scene ~

Cop: "We need allies."

Sasha: "Why don't you call someone?"

Cop: "I have no one. Bring two randos and wait 12 hours, and we can continue the quest."

~ End Scene ~

Hello? Am I watching a film or playing goddamn Skyrim? Get that wounded girl up in here. Slap her in some Whiterun armor.

"I used to be in a horror movie like you. But then my friend fucking shot out my knee."

The previously mentioned dream sequences try way too hard. The motivations of some characters are a complete and utter mystery. There's zero chemistry between the cast. The disconnected scenes of our heroes bumbling about the woods are like Blair Witch without half the tension or mystery.

Honestly, there's just a lot of stuff wrong with this film.

The actors don't seem that bad. Like you've got Dee Wallace to play Catherine for Chrissake. So I'm led to believe it's the writing is the main culprit weighing the whole thing down.

Could you imagine if Dee Wallace's character had whipped out, "NO! You're not going as a terrorist!" 

Would have pissed myself. Screaming and crying. 10 stars.

Maybe this was a horror comedy, and I didn't get it. You don't name your film Ted Bunny and not be tongue-in-cheek about it, right? 

I want to believe that is the case. Except everything is played straight-faced. The framing makes the film feel like an edgy attempt to copy slasher classics rather than taking those tropes and utilizing them to create something unique. And if you're not gonna making something new, at least make it fun. Unfortunately, there's not much of that to be had.

Mechanics & Structure

The bag here is mixed.

The lighting and cinematography has a schizophrenic bent. The inside of a tent will be lit up like a Christmas Tree for one shot, then it'll cut to an outside angle, and it's pitch black night. 

Camera angles will go from relatively normal to right up in an actor's face like they're filming a TikTok mukbang video. Zits and wrinkles and everything on display. Kinda nasty, ngl. If we wanna stretch, it kinda sorta parallels Ted Bundy's violation of Catherine? Getting up all in people's faces like that? Maybe?

Or maybe they were foreshadowing this whole #burgermogging thing social media is fired up about. Omg. Trendsetters.

It has your generic, low ambient soundtrack for tension and spookiness. Not memorable. Not offensive. Which, whatever. It's a budget film, and it does its job (or it would have done if this film were actually scary). You make it work with what you gotta make it work.

I do like how it credited the pet bunnies by their names in the ending credits. That was a cute touch. Kudos on that front, editor.

Conclusion

So what do we end with? Well, despite a decent start, Ted Bunny was a soup of unremarkable horror cliches held together with truly bad dialogue. Characters are without purpose. Scenes are without direction. And a general lack of a cohesive, original vision permeates every minute.

I suppose the kills themselves aren't half bad for a budget slasher. That and the killer's mask. I quite liked the bunny mask. That was a fun design. Wish we'd gotten something more substantial than trailer park Wormtail out of it, but you take your victories where you can.

🟥 Rating: 2/10