The latest project focusing on Ted Bundy, “Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil and Vile” starring Zac Efron and his abs, has already sparked concerns that the Netflix feature is glamorizing the serial killer with an uncomfortably splashy portrayal.
But the film’s stars and director have answered the criticism by framing the story as a testament to Bundy’s many victims, who ... TWIST ... have apparently been visiting co-star Lily Collins in the kitchen at night.
Collins, who plays Bundy’s longtime girlfriend Liz Kloepfer in the film, believes she was contacted by certain spirits “when the veil between the realms is the thinnest and one can be visited” while preparing for the role.
“I would go downstairs and have a cup of tea, trying to figure out why I had woken up again,” she recalled in an interview with The Guardian published this week. “I started being woken up by flashes of images, like the aftermath of a struggle.”
Waking up precisely at 3:05 a.m. every night, according to Collins, prompted some Googling, which seemingly confirmed suspicions that these long-deceased women were trying to contact her.
“I didn’t feel scared – I felt supported,” Collins added. “I felt like people were saying: ‘We’re here listening. We’re here to support. Thank you for telling the story.’”
The Guardian reporter who interviewed Collins wrote that she recounted these events in a “completely matter-of-fact manner,” in case anyone doubted whether she was serious.
Efron, for one, hasn’t had any experiences with the afterlife that he’s shared, but did recently reassure fans that the film’s heart was in the right place.
“The goal was a very challenging one and I’m thrilled that it turned out the way that it did,” Efron, a Disney Channel alum, told Ellen DeGeneres in a sit-down interview this week. “I am not into portraying a serial killer or anybody of this nature or glamorizing them in any way ... it does not glamorize the killing. This is an important thing for people to hear.”