Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! Welcome to another exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE MAILBOX, an exciting column where your old pal Brain Hammer reviews whatever random crap the good folks at horroryearbook decide to throw my way.

Barnholtz Entertainment was nice enough to send along a screener copy of the latest direct to dvd serial killer epic from writer/director Michael Feifer. Feifer has a been a busy man in the last few years, cranking out a string of grisly straight to dvd serial killer bio-pics including Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck, Ed Gein: Butcher Of Plainfield, Boston Strangler: The Untold Story, and B.T.K. with Kane Hodder. You can check out my review of B.T.K. here.

Notorious 1970’s serial killer Ted Bundy gets the treatment this time around. It’s obvious that Michael Feifer holds Ted Bundy in high regard, as this film was originally titled Bundy: An American Icon. The title has since been changed to the less offensive sounding Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil. No time at all is wasted in this one, as we are immediately thrown into a disturbing scene of Ted Bundy in action as he torments and then kills a terrified young girl that he has abducted and raped. Once Bundy’s appetite for for torture and murder has been well established we get to see flashbacks of Ted as lad, finding out the hard way that his older sister is actually his mother. Ted never knew who his father really was, and the shame of his illegitimate upbringing helped fuel his madness.

Ted Bundy (portrayed by Corin Nemec) was a handsome and charming young man who worked his was up from humble beginnings and went to college to study psychology. Ted even volunteered at a suicide crisis center. He was also a violent psychopath with a body count that reached well into triple digits. Bundy grew quite adept at acting both harmless and helpless and would even wear fake casts to lull his victims into a false sense of security. Once the girls and Ted were alone together the bludgenings, abductions, and violent murders would become a deadly routine. Bundy decapitated at least a dozen of his victims, and even burned one unfortunate girls skull in a fireplace.

Police arrest Bundy on suspicion of burglary and then connect Bundy to the kidnapping of several missing girls. Incredibly, Bundy escapes from prison not once but twice and makes a cross country trip to Florida that leads some to some of the most vicious killings in history. Once in Florida, Bundy’s dark side completely takes over and he unleashes his inner rage in a night of bloody mayhem that climaxes with five girls being clubbed, bludgeoned, strangled, and raped. Bundy’s final outrage comes a few weeks later when he abducts, rapes, and murders a 12 year old girl. A stolen car leads to his final arrest and capture, and the legacy of evil comes to a close when Bundy is executed in the electric chair in January of 1989.

Ted Bundy captured the interest of the public for being one of the very first killers identified as a serial killer. He was also unusually handsome and well spoken for a man convicted of multiple brutal murders. Perhaps more than any other killer in history, Ted Bundy proved that evil could hide behind the face of the boy next door. Ted Bundy has been the subject of countless books and now five different films. The most well known would have to be the 1986 NBC made for tv movie The Deliberate Stranger starring Mark Harmon. More recently, there was a fairly accurate and lurid straight to dvd flick by Matthew Bright called Ted Bundy that came out in 2002. I thought Ted Bundy was a brave flick for showing a lot of Bundy’s deviant crimes in great detail and for having a lot of insight into his character. I wasn’t sure what to think about Michael Feifer having a crack at him. I’ve enjoyed some of his efforts a lot more than others.

Well I’m happy to say that Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil is not only a cool flick, it’s hands down the best flick that Michael Feifer has done to date. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that this one stays close to the source material and doesn’t try too hard to change an already sick and terrifying story. The other reason this one works is Corin Nemic. I think he did a really good job in the lead role. He looked right, and he played the part with just the right amount of tounge in cheek. There is an unbelievable scene where Ted finds a dead wolf in the woods and begins howling like a maniac. Bundy had claimed that he had a dark animalistic side of his personality that would possess him, and this strange scene is a cool representation of that aspect of his demented mind.

It also helps that Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil is a bit more interesting to look at than some of Feifer’s other efforts. I thought the Chi Omega sorority slaughter was the visual highlight of the film. It was a bit more restrained than I expected, but I liked the way it was presented. All of the death scenes in this movie are excellent. Corin goes completely off the rails and his victims are all good actresses that make the scenes convincingly uncomfortable to watch. Unlike Matthew Bright’s Ted Bundy, this film does not try to make the death scenes amusing in any way. The endings of both films are a little less than satisfactory, but we all know how the story is going to ends anyways.

Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil co-stars the one and only Kane Hodder in a small supporting role of a warden who takes Bundy on the long walk. I was glad that Kane didn’t have the lead role this time around. He was miscast in Ed Gein: Butcher Of Plainfield, and he would have made an even less convincing Ted Bundy. Michael Feifer has a flick called Henry Lee Lucas: Drifter in the works and I’m excited to see what he can do that hasn’t been done already in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer or Confessions Of A Serial Killer. I’m not a huge fan of all of his efforts, but hats off to the guy for bringing these killers to life. If he keeps making flicks as good as this one he should become a bigger name in horror.

I think fans of serial killer flicks should give this one a go. The scene where Ted roasts a severed head in the fireplace alone makes this one worth seeing. I thought this was one of the better straight to video serial killer efforts I’ve seen in a while. Bundy: A Legacy Of Evil will be released on dvd Tuesday 07/21/09. The special features include director’s commentary and a stills gallery. Brain Hammer approved!

KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!