My family had a unique perspective on the Zodiac Killings I grew up in Vallejo and my family lived there during the time that the Zodiac Killer terrorized our quiet bedroom community south west of Napa Valley. While we didn’t know any of the victims personally we couldn’t help feel a connection with them when we opened up the Vallejo Times Herald and read about another killing or saw one of the Zodiac Killer’s rants in print. One of the better known serial killers during the 60’s the Zodiac Killer was never caught (although there was one suspect that the Vallejo police department believed to be the killer). Outside of Jack the Ripper there hadn’t been a killer that taunted the police quite so effectively as Zodiac for quite some time. ***

The San Francisco Bay Area lived in terror during the Zodiac rein; this was just after the Summer of Love. This stuff shouldn’t be happening. There should be love-in’s and protests against the Vietnam War not some coward blithely picking off innocent victims in a quest for power and fame. ***

Sgt. Matt Parish (Justin Chambers of “Grey’s Anatomy”) is haunted by the Zodiac. His attempts to find the killer continuously meet dead ends. He’s concerned about his own family including his wife Laura (Robin Tunney of “Prison Break”), son Johnny (Rory Culkin of “The Night Listener”). Featuring a marvelous supporting cast including Philip Baker Hall (“Bruce Almighty”, “Magnolia”), William Mapother (“Lost” and “Threshold”) the film captures the era very well with location shooting in Vallejo, California and other areas adjacent to where the murders really occurred. Directed Alexander Bulkley creates a low key suspense thriller relying on the actual police and news reports of the time. The script by Bulkley and his brother Kelley Bulkeley focuses much more on the emotional impact on both the community and personalizes it by telling much of the story from Parish’s point -of -view. It’s a worthwhile low key thriller that will be of interest particu larly to those who remember the era and the turmoil that occurred during the Zodiac’s psychotic killing spree. ---

Image & Sound:

A very nice transfer the film captures the look of the theatrical release of the film very nicely. The audio is nicely mixed as well using directional effects very nicely. The overall look and feel of the film has an almost documentary look with very striking lighting. ---

The film also features a very low key and informative commentary track by director/co-writer Bulkley and his brother Kelly discussing the real life incidents that inspired the various scenes in the film providing considerable background on the real case. The creepy “Decoding The Zodiac: Zodiac Ciphers” features the ciphered messages that the police had to decode. The messages are still chilling today. Reportedly the Zodiac stated that if the police could decipher his messages they could easily discover who he was. That didn’t quite turn out to be the case. ***

“Behind ‘The Zodiac’” takes us on location in Vallejo and around the Bay Area as the film attempts to capture the feel of the area in 1968. It’s a fascinating “Behind-the-Scenes” piece combining as it does the making of the film and the history of the murders. It features interviews with Justin Chambers, Brad Henke, William Mapother discussing the story and their characters. ***

“Chronology of the Killings” is a text section that lives up to its title breaking down the time frame for the first killings through to the kidnapping of a woman and her 1 year old child that occurred outside Modesto, California. ***

“The Zodiac Letters” are the actual letters written by the killer read by actor Mark Lindsey. The killer threatened to kill more people unless the Vallejo Times-Herald printed his letters. The letters are pretty frightening to see again nearly forty years later. ***

We also get the original theatrical trailer for the film as well as previews for other films. Although the special features aren’t quite as many other films they are actually quite extensive considering that the film barely had a theatrical release. ---

Final Words: