Netflix’s new Ted Bundy biopic, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, depicts the serial killer’s relationship with long-term girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer as sweet, loving and playful.

It’s what makes his heinous crimes against women all the more shocking.

But much of the truth about what it was really like to date and co-parent with Ted Bundy for six years is left out of the film.

Watch the official trailer for Netflix’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile below. Post continues after video…

Elizabeth Kloepfer’s 1991 memoir The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, which is the basis of the film, tells a very different story.

She writes that in her final conversation with Bundy – which actually took place on the telephone, not on death row as shown in the movie – she asked him if he ever tried to hurt her.

According to her book as reported by The Tab, Bundy confessed to feeling “it coming on” one night when he was staying over with her.

“I closed the damper so the smoke couldn’t go up the chimney,” Bundy said. “And then I left and put a towel in the crack under the door so the smoke would stay in the apartment.”

Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins in the movie, recalled the night he was talking about. She remembered waking up coughing and struggling to breathe, before flinging open the windows to let oxygen in.

“I almost didn’t believe him,” Kloepfer wrote. “It didn’t fit in with the murders. I thought that maybe he wasn’t willing to talk about any more serious attempts to kill me.”

Kloepfer also wrote about how rocky their relationship was at times: “We would be getting along fine, and then a door would slam and I would be out in the cold until Ted was ready to let me back in.”

In her memoir she also detailed some of Bundy’s bizarre sexual behaviour, including waking up in the night to find him examining her body under the covers with a flashlight, which we do see briefly in the movie.

How did Ted Bundy and Elizabeth Kloepfer meet?

This part of the movie is very true to Kloepfer’s memoir.

One night in 1969, Kloepfer was sitting in a Seattle bar when her friend Marylynne Chino noticed that a man had been staring at them.

“That guy has been staring at you all night,” Marylynne told Elizabeth, who turned to look.

“I’ve never forgotten this,” Marylynne later told KUTV. “I walked in, and across the room, I saw Ted for the first time. I will never forget the look on his face, it wasn’t evil but he was staring, nursing a beer.”

Elizabeth walked over to the man and struck up a conversation.

Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, the man was Ted Bundy.

The couple danced all night and soon began dating. Kloepfer was going through a divorce and was a single mum to her daughter Molly, but Bundy soon became a part of the family.

“There was this nice family unit of three,” Joe Berlinger, who directed Netflix docuseries Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Netflix movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile said.

“They were going sailing, going camping, going hiking, having birthday parties, but that male figure was Ted Bundy.”

As shown in Extremely Wicked, Bundy helped raise Molly for six years – right up until he was caught by police for his horrific crimes.

Where are Elizabeth and Molly now?

Despite keeping a low profile, both Elizabeth and Molly visited the set of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, while the film’s happier scenes were being shot.

“Those were few and far between,” director Berlinger told Vanity Fair. “It was very touching to see Elizabeth, Zac, Lily, and Molly interacting.”

Berlinger also shared that the mother and daughter duo have no interest in seeing the film or doing press for it.

“They have both had a hard time processing this. It took a lot of trust for them to meet with us,” he explained.

“They still haven’t seen the film and don’t want to see the film and don’t want to do press for the film. Elizabeth still has a hard time with it. But I think she is happy we made the film and happy with Lily portraying her… It is still a painful experience. But I think, generally speaking, they’ve moved on with their lives and are both in a good place.”

Lily Collins, who played Elizabeth in the film, also met Elizabeth prior to shooting the movie.

“She was so gracious, giving me material to look at and speaking to me,” Lily said.

“I don’t know if she’s going to see the movie because it’s difficult, but within the filming process, she came on set and she was a positive light on-set. You wouldn’t expect that with what happened. She gave us her support. She’s really lovely.”

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is available to watch on Netflix now.

For more on this topic:

• The untold story of what happened to serial killer Ted Bundy’s daughter, Rose Bundy.
• Liz Kloepfer met the love of her life in a bar. He turned out to be Ted Bundy.
• The little-known story of serial killer Ted Bundy’s first girlfriend, Diane Edwards. 
• Molly Kloepfer was raised by Ted Bundy for six years. This is what her life looks like now. 
• The faces we should be remembering when we talk about Ted Bundy.