The film, which had a limited theatrical release, is a sardonic dramatization of the sexual homicides of Ted Bundy, an American serial killer and necrophiliac who murdered and raped dozens of women and girls in the United States during the 1970s.

Achieving countrywide infamy, Ted eludes the authorities because he has extensive knowledge of law enforcement and legal tactics from school, including his ability to avoid fitting offender profiles.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Ted Bundy wastes an impressive performance from Michael Reilly Burke on an exploitative film devoid of any social context or depth".

[8] Chauncey Gardner of Ain't It Cool News was critical of the film's "really offensive" final scene but otherwise praised it, writing: "It's the movie American Psycho wanted to be, a balls out, no punches pulled examination of a sick and twisted soul".

[9] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave the film a score of 3/5, said Matthew Bright does not glamorize or fetishize Bundy or his crimes, and praised Burke's acting, calling it "dead on" and a performance that "evokes "the subtle wrongness beneath the facade that gripped the public imagination".

[10] Derek Elley of Variety also praised the "pulpy" and humorously macabre film, deeming it a "quality low-budgeter" that feels like a "disturbingly stygian comedy-drama" with a sine qua non performance by Burke.

[12] Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle gave Ted Bundy a score of 1/5, having found its disquieting atmosphere and commentary on 1970s society are undermined by its "muddled" nature, concluding the film "is never really sure what to say about its subject".

[13] Similarly, Neil Smith of the BBC lambasted the film, giving it a score of 2/5and calling an "orgy of gratuitous violence" in which "[w]e learn next to nothing about what made Bundy tick, and leave no closer to understanding how such aberrations occur".

[16] Mike D'Angelo of Time Out was largely dismissive of the film, saying there is "too much exploitation and too little art", and that: "The sight of ordinary-looking people committing unspeakably vicious acts no longer carries an inherent charge, and Ted Bundy offers little else".

[17] Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News called Ted Bundy "revolting exploitation" and stated: "If the goal of this biographical horror film about one of America's sickest serial killers was to be as loathsome as its subject, mission accomplished".

[19] In a review written for The Village Voice, Michael Atkinson said the film "never digs very deep" and concluded: "In the end, Ted Bundy' only justification is the director's common but unexplored fascination with the frustrated maniac; there's no larger point, and little social context.