The first trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile dropped on Friday afternoon.

And needless to say, it received a slew of mixed reactions from fans and critics alike.

In the one-and-a-half-minute clip, we see snippets of Bundy unassumingly wooing his way into Kloepfer's life, the downward spiral of his arrest, court appearances, and his time in prison through her perspective. 

photo: Voltage Pictures

People were quick to criticize not only the tone and lightheartedness of the trailer but also how Efron makes Bundy seem like a charming anti-hero.

Some pointed out that this film is exactly what Bundy would've wanted.

"You can count on Hollywood to make the worst human beings immortal," one Twitter user wrote.

Others criticized the trailer for "sexualizing" Bundy by casting Efron in the role.

"Can we not sexualize Ted Bundy? He raped, murdered, and decapitated women and had sex with their dead bodies. Not here for this hyper-sexualized Zac Efron film," this person on Twitter wrote.

Many echoed that same sentiment, claiming Joe Berlinger’s narrative feature about Ted Bundy is purposefully humanizing Bundy and making him "irresistibly sexy."

"They've framed this as Zac Efron playing an irresistibly sexy charming conman. Not a f**king vile murderer," one social media critic wrote. "Just, f**k off."

Casting choices aside, many were pissed about the framing of Bundy as a charming and affable man.

"The wink is extremely disturbing and the romanticization of a serial killer is exactly why these sick f**ks continue to do things like this to women," one woman on Twitter wrote, referring to a specific shot in the trailer.

But here's the thing that these folks are missing: Bundy was a charming man. He harnessed his good looks and wholesome facade to gain the trust of his victims and elude justice.

Most serial killers don't walk around with a sign around their necks that reads "I KILL PEOPLE." Evil typically festers beneath a charismatic, seemingly "normal" exterior.

The charming exterior is precisely what makes serial killers like Bundy so terrifying. And that's the whole point of the film.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is meant to make us examine our own biases and dismantle stereotypes and perceptions of serial killers.

It's similar to the portrayal of Joe Goldberg on Neflix's You — except, you know, this actually happened IRL.

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Like Bundy, Joe's character comes off as intelligent, calm, and charismatic. Under the surface, however, he's manipulative and murderous. Get it?

It goes without saying, but sexualizing and sensationalizing serial killers is incredibly common. The media gives them names, tracks their every move, and publicizes them to keep people enthralled.

Just look at how many people have tattoos of Charles Manson. It's the way of the world.

Efron himself understood the concerns of glorifying a serial killer when cast as Bundy. He gets it.

"I feel a responsibility to make sure that this movie is not a celebration of Ted Bundy," Efron said in an interview with Variety. "Or a glorification of him. But definitely a psychological study of who this person was. In that, there’s honesty."

Perhaps just watch the film before forming an opinion.

Instead of reacting based on the trailer alone, go see Extremely Wicked, then decide whether or not it really sexualizes Bundy.

And if you're still convinced it sexualized Bundy, perhaps check out director Joe Berlinger’s Netflix documentary Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.

Like Extremely Wicked, Conversations With a Killer aims to dismantle serial killer stereotypes. "We want to think these are two-dimensional human beings," Berlinger told Vulture. "We want to think they’re easily identifiable in society."

And most of all, in the midst of all this Ted Bundy talk, let's take a moment to remember the victims of his crimes.

"These women had hopes and dreams. I always try to remember what these monsters took away," one Twitter user said. Amen.