‘Zodiac Killer Project’ Review: A Clever Deconstruction of True Crime Docs That Both Satirizes and Deepens the Genre

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In today’s streaming era, it’s quite possible that true crime documentaries will appear in your suggested listings, even if you’ve never watched one before. These shows often dramatize chilling events such as hostage situations, dangerous cults, unresolved child murders, and clown killers, turning them into sensational series. Remarkably, these commonplace productions share similarities with some synthetic opiates – they are inexpensive to produce and incredibly hard to resist.

In the intriguing true-crime documentary Zodiac Killer Project, former critic and now filmmaker Charlie Shackleton dives deep into the factors that make these types of documentaries captivating, both from a psychological and structural perspective. He takes apart the genre but simultaneously adds depth to it, crafting his own suspenseful true-crime production while illustrating the process behind creating such productions.

The director, known for analyzing teen films and horror movies in his past works (such as ‘Beyond Clueless’ and ‘Fear Itself’), skillfully combines sincerity and wit in his latest project. He narrates the events with a subtle critical tone, demonstrating a deep respect for true crime stories by offering his own substantial take on them. However, he also exposes the manipulative nature of these documentaries, revealing that most of them follow similar stylistic patterns to keep audiences captivated on their screens.

The project unfolds as an unsuccessful endeavor to solve one of America’s most famous unsolved mysteries, vividly portrayed in David Fincher’s excellent 2007 thriller, “Zodiac.” Unlike the movie, Shackleton shares his story about attempting, and ultimately failing, to acquire the rights to a less popular account written by former California highway patrolman Lyndon Lafferty in 2012.

The book titled “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up” features a former police officer who allegedly encountered a man called George Russell Tucker (a pseudonym) at a rest stop in 1971. This enigmatic individual struck the officer, Lafferty, as possibly being the Zodiac Killer, triggering an investigation that spanned years and was filled with incredible twists, unexpected turns, and even reversals. In essence, it provided all the elements necessary for a gripping true crime narrative.

Instead of providing another take on the genre, Shackleton chooses to delve into its inner workings, using instances like “The Jinx”, “Making a Murderer”, and “Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes” as references. He then constructs his own version of the Zodiac mystery in a feature-length documentary, meticulously adhering to all necessary rules. The documentary is broken down into three acts, each concluding with a significant revelation that maintains the intrigue and leaves us yearning for more.

The director jokes, “That’s some engaging dramatic work, isn’t it?”, as he employs strategies similar to numerous other projects to draw us in. These tactics range from spooky insertions of old family photos and archival footage, close-ups of tape recorders and flashbulbs, interviews where people repeat the same catchphrases, and reenactments featuring actors who are only shown from behind (known as ‘bactors’). They provide a sense of what transpired without fully revealing it. Since true crime documentaries often lack filmed evidence of the crimes themselves, an entire style has been developed to bring viewers as close as possible to real-life events – to make us believe the fiction is reality.

Shackleton employs strategies similar to those he’s describing, yet in a self-referential manner, revealing that we are being influenced even as we are being influenced ourselves. We find ourselves captivated by Lafferty’s thrilling narrative detailing his pursuit of the elusive Tucker following their initial meeting. He spent months monitoring him at AA meetings with assistance from other law enforcement officers tracking serial killers, unsuccessfully attempting to obtain Tucker’s fingerprints on a large fishbowl, and finally facing off against him in a heart-pounding confrontation.

The patrolman’s story is “extremely movie-like” that it leaves Shackleton musing if the book was crafted with the style of a genuine crime documentary. Given the tremendous popularity of this genre, initially in books and now on streaming platforms and podcasts, one can’t help but ponder how much authenticity lies within true crime stories, and whether ethical lines are frequently blurred to feed the appetite for compelling entertainment.

Despite continuously criticizing aspects within the genre, Shackleton manages to get many things correct, albeit indirectly. Disregarding the glitzy Netflix-esque clips he occasionally includes (quoted with irony), the majority of his film comprises of second-unit shots captured in NorCal – areas such as streets, buildings, highways, and stores that served as haunts for the cop and the killer at one point. In hindsight, these locations seem like abandoned battlefields from a case that remained unsolved.

In the Zodiac Killer Project, you won’t find people in the images, no experts or actors reenacting events. Instead, there’s a blank space that encourages viewers to use their imagination and piece together the story themselves. Unlike most true crime documentaries, this one invites you to fill in the blanks, offering an opportunity that might be the closest approximation to the actual events.

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2025-01-31 19:57