American Serial Killers

Deliberate Stranger

Movie Details :

Starring :

Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy

Frederic Forrest as Detective Bob Keppel

Ben Master as Detective Mike Fisher

Runtime – 185 mins

Movie Review

The Deliberate Stranger is one of the earlier movies dipicting the life and crimes of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy. The movie is based on the book of the same name written by friend and colleague of Bundy’s, Richard Larson.

Larson’s perspective on the Ted Bundy story leaves out a lot of what made Bundy the monster that he was ie. his mental state and focuses more on the events, time lines and of course the outward persona of Bundy. Not suprising since Larson was one of Bundy’s supporters when he was accused of the brutal murders of all those women, it is easy to see why Larson drew attention to Bundy’s apparent all-American boy image in this movie.

This is where Mark Harmon comes in to the picture. The decision to cast the cute, wholesome looking Harmon in the starring role was an inspired choice. Harmon gives a convincing performance and is credible as the charming confident Ted and also as the psychotic killer Ted.

As mentioned before this movie does not get into the mindset of Bundy, nor is it graphic in nature when dipicting the murders, for this reason Harmon is the ideal choice of actor for the part as we see only what those around Ted at the time saw, a charming, handsome, polite man who would be the last person you would believe to be a killer.

The role of Bundy’s mousey girlfriend Cas Richter is played by Gylnnis O’ Connor. The relationship between the two is portrayed with real emotion, you can understand the reasons Cas stays with Ted despite her suspicions of him as she seems to think herself lucky to be in a relationship with a man who apparently has it all.

Bundy’s victims are played by attractive model/actresses such as Terry Farrell who plays the role of Katie Hargreaves.

An interesting aspect of this movie is the fact that it is tells the stories of Bundy, the detectives tring to catch him, his girlfriend Cas, and the families of the victims.

This is a great movie and is worth a watch if you have not seen it or another watch if you saw it when it came out in 1986.