The Stranger Beside Me
Tags: dark

Plot synopsis:
A female voice-over states that she wishes she could envision a time before the killings. The images are of Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (Billy Campbell), carrying the body of a blonde young woman across the fields up to a barn. Ted clumsily applies lipstick to the woman's face, and those reminiscences are mixed with a police car's sirens stopping him. Ted undresses the young lady and smashes her head, splitting blood onto his own face. Ted, sweaty and nervous, looks petrified, but the police officer insists.A phone rings. Ann Rule (Barbara Hershey) was sleeping, dozed on her couch, until the police pass her to Ted.CUT to Seven Years Earlier.She was attending a busy telephone line which supports women. Ted and Ann work together, and it's clear they get on well. Ted talks to one Sally who cries over her husband having left her. Ted mentions a "long tall Sally" he used to know. Sally doesn't answer when Ted offers to go out with her. Ann calls the police on her behalf, so Sally is taken to hospital. Ann hugs Ted, because he has saved Sally's life. During a break at a diner, Ted shows Ann the kind of detective comics he usually reads. Ann is already a published author, and Ted talks about the girlfriend who dumped him.Kim Manson's body has appeared. Leslie Rule (Meghan Black), Ann's daughter, goes out with a guy, but her mother shoes her some photographs of other teenagers who were attacked and killed. Ann is obsessed with crime, as she investigates and reports true crime stories.A jogger founds a skeleton semi-buried in the woods. Ted and Ann meet at a fund-raising political reunion. Governor Evans (Michael St. John Smith) has given Ted a job as a driver. Ann is surprised to see him dressed as a Republican. Ted introduces Margo (Brenda James) to Ann. Margo says that Ted talks about Ann all the time, and that she is going to get ready to him.Police think that there are already six girls missing, related to that case. Margo wants to see Ted more, who'sreading the newspaper, whose first-page is the news of some missing girls. At the gym, Ted looks at a young teenager. Ted is wearing an arm in a string. Ted tells Katie (Crystal Bublé) to help him charge the battery of his car. Katie finds weird a comment he makes about the areas, when he has just said that he doesn't know anybody in the area. Katie leaves, so Ted has to find another victim - another teenager. He chit-chats with her in a friendly manner, until he hits her on the head. Ted comes back home with a bouquet of flowers and some takeaway dinner to take while dancing and kissing Margo. He reminiscences about the body of the second teenager.Ann is getting nervous and tries to control Leslie, who can't even take the bus on her own to pay a visit to her father. Ted tries to make peace. Ann inquires about a bandaged hand, and Ted says he's cut himself. Ann Rule is also a detective who will help police with the case. Ann is worried that the rape and murders can happen to any girl - and Leslie fits the mold of the girls who interest the killer. Ted promises Ann that nothing bad will ever happen to Leslie.Ann goes to the car park where Ted lured the young girls. Katie has described "Ted", but they think that the name is fake and the male face of the young man is a bit too generic. In any case, Ann doesn't recognise the portrait of Ted Bundy. Detective Payton (Matthew Bennett) and District Attorney Baines (Aaron Douglas) discuss the case with Ann. Ann realises that her friend Ted looks a little like the killer, but the cop doesn't think it possible that the murderer used his real name - that would be stupid.Some other day, Ted introduces his friend Kelly Parker (Suki Kaiser) to Ann at the café. Ann asks Ted about Margo, and he tells her that she was from Utah, so that she came back to her family. Ted mentions that the killer is second-to-Jack-the-Reaper, and asks about the case in return. Ann says that nobody feels threatened by that man. The three of them laugh about Ted - and thousands of men like him - being possible suspects. Ann suggests he goes to the police station to have some tests. Kelly laughs it off ackwardly, they are just two friends goofing around. Ted's hand has healed perfectly well, not even a scar as proof.CUT to Utah, 1975A moustached man possing off as a police officer, Roseland, in street clothes lures a girl to ckeck on her vandalised car. He offers to take her to the police station to report on the crime after showing her his star. He tells Julie Wyatt (Kimberley Warnat) that his wife is about to have a child, and that Julie is one of the names in their list as a baby name. Suddenly, Julie starts getting nervous, as they are not going the right way. He asks her how often her boyfriend tells her that she's beautiful, which makes her frantic, as she hasn't mentioned a boyfriend at all. He tries to handcuff her to the car, but she manages to run awaywhen another car approaches, and the driver (Johnny Sawchuk) stops to help her. Ted Bundy leaves in his car. He takes off his fake moustache, and mutters that the situation is stupid.With the excuse of his car's dead battery, he talks to a ticket girl (Tara Hungerford) at a cinema cabin. As usual with Ted Bundy, he looks friendly, well-kept, and finally takes a young school girl dressed in a school uniform, with her musical instrument by her side. He applies make up with a brush and then hits her in the head. Leslie and Ann wonder about why somebody would do something like that. Meanwhile, Ted tries to compose himself in his car. A police officer (Mark Lukyn) asks him what he's doing there, and he says that he saw a film at the Redwood cinema, but that he took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up there, lost. The cop asks a nervous Ted whether he can look around in his car. Ted gives in, because the opposite would look suspicious, and the cop notices dented tools at the back. The ticket girl can give a clear positive identification of Ted, as several days have gone by.Ted is interrogated. He's shown the pictures of some Utah girls, including Susan Wayne (Sarah Edmondson). They may have something on him: the handcuffs which Julie ran away in. There is a radio broadcaster says that Ted has been arrested. Leslie and Ann amazed at that.Ted phones Ann and tries to convince her that she "knows him, he wouldn't hurt a fly". He reassures her that they are friends, and that when he leaves jail, he'll visit her.Her editor puts some more pressure on Ann because of her biding contract to the publishing house. They want her to exploit her friendship to Ted. Ann admits that she's scared of Ted, but that book may do away with her financial problems. Ann and many other cops search for clues now that they have a suspect. Ann thinks she should have known, but her friend tries to reassure her that there is not way she could have suspected him. Margo also thinks that there were clues: he read the articles about the case, he watch the TV. Margo admits to a female friend that Ted could only have sex with her if he was choking her, or if he tied her up.Ted bails himself out. He phones Ann from a street phone, saying that he's staying with Margo in Seattle. Ann wants to talk with him to know what makes him click. Ted is being followed. Ted hired a private detective who's going to prove that he's innocent. Ann admits to him that she's not convinced of his innocence. He answers her personal questions. They are at a different café, and the young waitress (Mia Lotringer) recognises Ted Bundy's face and asks him for an autograph! Ted expresses his confidence he would be declared non-guilty.However, he's declared guilty of a kidnapping with aggravants. Ann and Kelly talk outside the meeting room in prison. Ann tells him that he'll be accused of seceral murders. There were fibers of the victim's clothes into Ted's car. Ted's face changes but he still insists he's innocent. Ted says that the monster is still out there, that he's only a escapegoat, and that he isn't crazy.Ann starts seeing a therapist (Maureen Thomas) because of her own guilt feelings. A psychiatrist (Roger Haskett) visits Ted to assess whether he's crazy or not. Ann Rule says to her psychologist that she wanted to speak for the victims. Ann misses her writing, but at that moment, she can't cope. Ted wants to represent himself in Colorado.Florida, 1978Six days have gone by since Ted escaped from his Colorado prison. He's grown a beard. He's making himself pass as a young guy whose surname is Kashoggi. He's considered armed and extremely dangerous. Ted notices a young girl and follows her to her dorm room. He is wearing leather gloves and a torchlight. Ted stares at the girl in her nightie and hits her with his torcklight. Another student notices him while he runs down the building stairs. When that girl sees the blood and the body, she screams. Soon afterwards the police siege Ted's car. Another police officer (Shawn Reis) points a gun towards him. Ted ass the cop whether he knows who he is. There is a fight, but Ted is captured again.When Ted goes back to prison, there are plenty of cameras and reporters waiting for him. Ted makes jokes about that possibly being an election year. Ted pleads non-guilty again. Ann visits him. Ted looks satisfied because of the media attention.Judge Harris Carlton presides Ted's judgement. Ted's lawyer asks for more time, and Ted stands up to speak up.Ted's girlfriend describe him as good fun, charismatic, self-assured. He had stopped pursuing the girfriend when she said "yes" to him. Ann tells her that Ted must have started killing peopel long before he met any formal girlfriend. Everybody who knew the kind and "normal" Ted tries to figure it out. Ted was an illegitimate son who grew up with his grandparents, and his granddad was pretty violent towards him. Ted'sgrandmother, while arrenging a bouquet of flowers, remembers a quiet girl back in 1962 who vanished from the face of the earth and whose disappearance has never been explained.Ted himself questions one of his girlfriends. The ex-girfriend had hoped to marry him. Ted had never been violent towards her; all the contrary, he was a warm affectionate man. The jury looks at him with good humour, and Ted kisses her girlfriend before the judge, who tries to prevent things like that. Ted promisesto marry that girl, and he even convinces her of making love with him in the visiting room of jail.Ted says that somebody else committed the crimes and that he finds the crimes gruesome and unspeakable evil.The jury finds Ted guilty, and Judge Carlton sentences him to dead. In a way, the judge recognises Bundy's intelligence, as he says that in other circumstances, he'd have been proud to have a lawyer like him talking infront of the jury. For once, Ted doesn't look proud of himself; his face is forlorn and sad. However, he shrugs his shoulders looking at Ann Rule.Ted is preparing his own appeal to the Supreme Court. He has left his last girlfriend pregnant, and she looks happy and satisfied to support him through the ordeal. Talking to Jay, the prison guard, (Deejay Jackson),he is pretty satisfied with the fact of going to have a baby. He says that it's like becoming immortal.Raiford Prison in Starke, Florida.Ted has decided to become vegetarian, although the jail system doesn't care much for specialy dietary specifications. He talks to Ann, who keeps on visiting him. She asks about his childhood to him. Ted dismisses it: would Ann rather have Ted inventing something sordid going on in his family, like his grandfather raping his mother? Ann keeps on trying to understand, but can't. Ann says that it's clear that Ted has a defect somewhere, but Ted says that he hasn't got any. "I can't tell you the truth because there is no truth to tell." Ted states that he's like any ordinary person, and that he used to be a normal teenager at 14, like Ann herself, 99% of the time, but that he's still judged harshly. Ann wants Ted to admit that he killed all those girls. She also feels a weird need to see Ted behave like a moster. Suddenly, Ted ask Ann whether she can remember "Long tall Sally", the girl he saved. Afterwards, Ted tracked Sally through the health paramedics who had saved her - Sally was not even her real name. She ended up slitting her veins in her bedroom. Ann leaves in anger. Ted says that nothing would have done her any good. When Ann Rules arrives home, she cries.Ted talks to her girlfriend and his daughter already 5 years old at least. Ted tells the mother that she must plead with the relatives of the victims: he will tell them where the bodies of the girls are if they plead with the governor to give Ted a pardon. She is dumbfolded: she can't believe that he knows where those girls are. He says that he can speculate, - so he's not admitting to having done anything yet. She wants to leave with their daughter, but he tries to stop her and insists.Ted has been on death row for nine years. It looks like his last moment is about ot approach. He pleads for three more years: he will say where the girls are buried and will speak about the girls' last moments alive. However, his female lawyer tells him that the relatives and the families of the girls refuse to speak in his behalf, no matter what. Ted can't understand that the families can live without knowing where the girls have been buried. The lawyer suggests him giving out that information without expecting nothing in return.Ann also wonders whether there will be a last-second confession, or even a last-minute pardon. Ann rejects to be interviewed. There's still no confession.24th Januray 1989Ted is in prison. He sends a message to his family saying that he's sorry.Ann talks about Sarah Jane Sweeney (Ginger Broatch /Haili Page), a girl neighbour of young Ted Bundy (Trent Wittal). Sarah Jane was at home on a school day because she was sick. Her mother thought she was on her room sleeping, but she went to the porch and was rocking back and forth in a rocking chair. Ted passes by in his bike, as he is the paper boy of that neighbourhood. Sarah Jane must have been lured by Ted,. When her mother checked on her, she was not in her room and she was never found out alive or dead. Ann Rule thinks Sarah Jane Sweeney must have been Ted's first victim.Ted loses his cool while he walks the green mile. He has to be carried by the prison guards. In a voice over, Ann Rule's voice keeps on wondering about Ted Bundy and Sarah Jane Sweeney. She was 8, he was 14. Ted tries to plead for some more time, but he's tied to the electric chair without more ado. Officially, Ted killed 36 girls and women, but Ann Rule thinks that there has to be some more nobody knows about. She wonders whether Ted was born a monster, or he became a monster.Ann realises that there are no answers to those questions, over images of the ambulance which disposes of Ted's dead body and young Ted luring Sarah Jane away, in a friendly manner.CAPTIONS:The term "serial killer" did not exist before Ted Bundy.
Many of the families of the victims never recovered their daughters' remains. The family of SarahJane Sweeney held a memorial service for her in 1999, 38 years after her disappearance. Ann Rule haswritten 20 national best sellers and has become a leading advocate of the rights of victims' and their survivors.

Review: Somewhat decent but not as good as the book!.
Ann Rules' books including the Stranger Beside Me offers a detailed complex and complicated version of the events around Ted Bundy.
Who would have thought that even a seasoned policewoman turned writer would be sitting next to a serial killer on Tuesdays nights for a Suicide hot line.
There is no wonder that Ted Bundy got away with so much.
He was brilliant and conscious.
He graduated college and was attending law school.
But there was a dark side behind the image of a charming, intelligent political promising young man and that is what Ann Rule tries to bring forth to the public in her book and in her movie.
Sadly, the movie does touch on some bit of his past including the possible connection with a young girl's disappearance and the horrifying crimes against the women in the film.
Not all of the victims were shown but the film can scare anybody from hitchhiking away for sure.
Ann Rule was a lot stronger than the portrayal.
She has three other children which are not at all mentioned.
Barbara Hershey did a favorable job in playing Ann Rule.
The actor, Billy Campbell, played Ted Bundy was absolutely chilling and tragic all at once.
You just cringed with sadness when you heard the judge's remarks about him and if he had only chosen another way to live..
A Gripping Tale of an Uncontrollable Ego. This film is a fictional portrayal of Ann Rule's relationship with serial killer Ted Bundy (played by Billy Campbell).
How true it is or not, I have no idea.
It relies on Rule's point of view, with Rule being portrayed by Barbara Hershey, and some scenes do not even involve her, so at the very least the dialogue is just a bunch of bull.Ted Bundy working with crime writer and ex-cop Ann Rule at a crisis hotline, where they have paramedics tracing the calls and arriving in record time.
Also, Bundy as a Republican fundraiser and personal aide who knows the governor of Washington.
I admit I never knew much about Bundy, but this is more interesting than I had imagined.How Bundy, after being accused of murdering a dozen girls, gets out on bail is beyond me.
He says that after one semester of law school he knows enough to "torpedo" the prosecution, but I have no idea how this can be true.I appreciate the reference to Gary Gilmore and how Norman Mailer is writing a book about him.
Gilmore is a far less-known killer, but treated here as though he is much bigger (which was probably true at the time).
How he then escapes from Colorado and gets to Florida, gets a car, a fake identification and more...
he is truly a criminal mastermind.As I am not well-versed in Ted Bundy's story, and not not say how accurate this film is, I can say it was very well made.
I was engaged, and enthralled by how interesting it was.
And to be able to have both Ann Rule and Bundy's story told simultaneously adds a really good angle, since Bundy's story by itself would be more exploitative than anything..
The fascinating case of Ted Bundy.
RELEASED TO TV IN 2003 and directed by Paul Shapiro, "Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me" (aka "The Ted Bundy Story") stars Billy Campbell as the infamous serial killer and Barbara Hershey as the eponymous writer who knew him before and during his murders, as well as during his imprisonments in Colorado and Florida.
The phrase "serial killer" didn't exist before Bundy.
His first suspected victim was when he was a paper boy in Tacoma at the age of 14.
He finally officially confessed to 30 murders in 7 states from 1974 to1978, but later said there were several others and respectable estimates range from 60-100 or more.
He was first locked up in Utah in 1975 for kidnapping and assault, which is shown in the movie.
Bundy subsequently became a suspect in an increasing list of unsolved murders in several states.
Imprisoned in Colorado for homicide, he amazingly enacted two successful escapes and committed further attacks, including three more homicides in Florida, before his ultimate apprehension in 1978.
He received three death sentences in two separate trials for the Florida murders.
Bundy was electrocuted in Starke, Florida, on January 24, 1989.
He was 42 years-old.
What's strange about the Bundy case is that he was a highly educated, charismatic man with Hollywood good looks.
Combined with his likable gift of bullsheet he was able to dupe those closest to him, including Ann Rule, until the evidence against him piled up.
This explains why one Washington woman allowed him to stay with her after he was released from confinement in Utah as a prime suspect, not to mention Kelly Parker's marriage to him while he was in prison in Florida for 11 years.
One of the first murders shown in the movie, the one that occurs in the parking garage, actually took place at a state park.
Yet it successfully shows how the affable killer made himself appear harmless to his victims.
Despite story changes like this, as well as obvious anachronisms, the gist of the movie account is true and the film is compelling.
Campbell uncannily looks like the serial killer and does a potent portrayal.
Moreover the movie inspires you to look up the facts.
It also shows how women in general, and particularly nubile ones, need to be aware when dealing with strangers or dubious people and use their innate intuition, even if the person is thoroughly charming, intelligent and seems harmless.
Ultra-winsome Kimberley Warnat has a small role as one of the young women who kept her wits about her and therefore was able to see the proverbial writing on the wall and escape.This is the only movie based on Bundy's crimes that I've seen.
People say that the 1986 TV movie "The Deliberate Stranger" more closely adheres to the facts, but that one was released almost three years before the murderer's execution.
This one, by contrast, fittingly shows Bundy's just wages.
What a sick fool and what a waste of humanity, both him and his myriad tragic victims, not to mention the dozens of naïve souls he hoodwinked into believing his pathological lies thru his amiable mojo.
THE MOVIE RUNS 88 minutes and was shot in Vancouver & New Westminster, British Columbia.
The script was written by Matthew McDuffie & Matthew Tabak from Ann Rule's book.
ADDITIONAL CAST: Kevin Dunn appears as a Seattle detective and friend of Rule while Brenda James & Suki Kaiser play Bundy's oblivious lovers.
GRADE: B.
Decent TV movie about Ted Bundy.
TV movie about the crimes of Ted Bundy & his friendship with author Ann Rule.
I have not read her book so cannot comment upon this adaptation but I have read about Bundy & would recommend this movie to anybody interested in learning about the serial killer.
The film is gripping, well made and has a good level of acting.
.My only gripe is that the characters don't appear to age despite being spread over a couple of decades..
Kind of confusing because of the mistakes.
This was a well written story, however there were a tremendous amount of scenes out of sync with the film.
For example, the scene is set in 1975 yet everyone is at a juice bar located inside a gym (which didn't become popular until the late 1980's) and everyone was dressed like it was 1990 something.
Then, the 1988 version of Standing On Shaky Ground plays in the background..then Ted, the only person dressed like the 70's midst the large group dressed like skaters from the 1990's, suddenly stands up and walks out into the parking garage where we see cars ranging from 1972 to 1978, exactly 3 years into the future.
The movie is well done however whoever made these mistakes was pretty blind.
I can understand a few errors in the film here and there and I do not expect perfection, but if you have a movie set in the 70's, don't include fashions and music and hair styles from 20 years into the future..
Pretty strong stuff.
Eager former cop turned aspiring crime writer Ann Rule (an excellent performance by Barbara Hershey) documents a brutal series of murders stretching from Utah to Seattle.
Unbeknonst to Ann, the killer is the extremely smart, charming and affable Ted Bundy (a chilling and convincing portrayal by Billy Campbell), a close personal friend who works with her at a local suicide hotline.
Ably directed by Paul Shapiro, with a tight script by Matthew McDuffie and Matthew Tabak, a rattling, shivery score by Joseph Conlan, a reasonably gritty tone, slick cinematography by Ron Orieux, a steady pace, and several fairly nasty murder set pieces, this made-for-TV movie makes for very gripping and harrowing viewing.
Hershey and Campbell both contribute superb work in the lead roles.
The supporting cast are likewise fine and impressive: Kevin Dunn as a hard-nosed detective, Suki Kaiser as Bundy's adoring prison pen pal and eventual wife Kelly Parker, Brenda James as Bundy's chipper, unsuspecting girlfriend Margo, and Meghan Black as Ann's feisty teenage daughter Leslie.
This movie commendably refuses to explain Bundy's severe seething psychosis; instead it just merely states that evil folks like him simply exist and leaves it at that.
A grimly fascinating true crime flick..
Yet another liberty with facts, history.
I watched this film to see how it compared not only with book but with prior television drama THE DELIBERATE STRANGER with Mark Harmon and the 2002 feature film TED BUNDY.Once again, the liberties with facts and history here show that the Harmon film is still the most accurate.First of all, the racquet club scene is a distortion.
In real life, the event portrayed was the Lake Sammamish/Issiqua disappearances and murders of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund that happened on a weekend in July 1974; outdoor state park, not a racquet club in downtown Seattle.Kevin Dunn's character must be a composite, as is the detective who interrogates Bundy in Utah.
In real life, the Seattle investigation was by Detectives Robert Keppel and Roger Dunn and the Utah case was by Detectives Ira Beal, Dennis Couch and Jerry Thompson.In Florida, he did not murder the sorority women with a flashlight but with an oak wood club and he was arrested in a red VW bug, not a station wagon in Pensacola, Fla.The film does a good job of portraying Bundy's appearance alterations over time and the brief portrayal of his working days with Rule.However, outside of the fundraising party (in real life, it is not clear if Rule maintained a close association with Bundy as he began moving up the political ladder and began counting Seattle Times writer Richard Larsen as a friend), she does not touch on his growing relationship with Ross Davis (state GOP chairman) or Ralph Munro, who later became Secretary of State, which is covered in some scope in the Mark Harmon film.This film makes a decent effort to portray the events of the period but, like TED BUNDY (2002) takes its share of liberties with facts and events.