Zodiac (2007)

4 / 5

Tagline: There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer
Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: James Vanderbilt, Robert Graysmith
Actors Include: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama
Length: 158 minutes
Banned: nope
Country: USA

Review:
This was actually much better than I had anticipated. I've seen my share of serial killer reinactments and more often than not they are obnoxious hokey and far from what actually happened. Luckily that wasn't the case for this film. I've read a book on the real Zodiac killer when I was pretty young so by now I've forgotten most of the tale so it was quite surprising. He kills and taunts the Police and takes credit for things he possibly (likely) didn't do. Mainly he sticks to young couples, but he seems to just kill whomever really which makes the situation all the more frightening. He also had of course his Zodiac sign he would usually leave at the crime and often send cryptic messages for the Police to decode. I'm actually surprised they printed these codes in the paper for folks to decipher, but I suppose the faster they were solved the better right? The movie is actually necessarily quite long because it thoroughly covers every aspect of this case. We get to learn all of the suspects and whom it likely was, and how frustrating the entire thing was and so on. I really appreciated that they actually showed us from the perspective of just about everyone involved, particularly the Police end of things. The acting is impressive, and they seem to have the story down pat (from what I can remember about the actual case). It's quite captivating and although it is long the pacing is excellent and you'll want to see what comes next. Even though it does have some star power and a budget it actually came through without seeming super fake. Thank goodness this is so much better than that stupid "Summer Of Sam" but I shan't get started on that one again.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray