Joe Berlinger has rubbished claims that his Ted Bundy biopic glorifies the serial killer.
Zac Efron
The director of 'Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile' - who also directed Netflix's recent hit docu-series 'The Ted Bundy Tapes' - has defended his upcoming film amid criticism of its portrayal of the murderer, who charmed his 30 or more female victims before killing them in the 1970s.
He told Bustle: "I think the idea of this particular story, making a movie about Bundy, equals glorification of him is a very naive and knee-jerk reaction.
"Because if you actually watch the movie, the last thing we're doing is glorifying him. He gets his due at the end, but we're portraying the experience of how one becomes a victim to that kind of psychopathic seduction."
The crime movie stars Zac Efron as the magnetic killer and chronicles the crimes of Ted from the perspective of his long-time girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Joe, 57, defended the work, saying there should be "no censoring of subject matter".
However, he also acknowledged that creating the film and "making entertainment out of other people's tragedy" is in itself morally questionable.
He said: "I am highly aware of the hypocrisy that I myself participate in, about the nature of true crime film-making is that, at the end of the day, we're making entertainment out of other people's tragedy.
"I think there should be no censoring of subject matter, if it's done responsibly. And even if it's done irresponsibly, people have the right to tell any story they want to tell."
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