Zodiac

David Fincher, director of “Se7en” and “Fight Club,” returns to the big screen with “Zodiac,” a haunting film based on actual murder case files. Fincher’s unique, unsettling style will leave you with your mouth agape, terrified in a way you’ve never been before.

The film tells the story of the eponymous, widely publicized serial killer who terrorized the California Bay Area during the 1970’s with a series of random killings, cryptic letters, and puzzling ciphers. The film is shot from the point of view of journalists, detectives, and members of the general populace, as well as a young political cartoonist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

The true story of the Zodiac Killer is a frightening and horrible one, but the film is neither a conventional horror movie nor a carefully-crafted psychological thriller. Fincher’s goal, rather, is to chill the viewer with an almost hyper-real style of storytelling. Instead of using ominous music and loud noises to frighten the audience, victims are graphically killed with famous 60’s guitar rock playing in the background.

Their own horror is not melodramatic, but written in the confusion and shock across their faces.

The killing scenes are arranged similarly to those in “Jaws”: random characters are introduced, impending doom is certain, and goosebumps shoot down the back of your neck and arms. Instead of a cello increasing in bow strokes to mark the striking moment though, Fincher’s strategy is to calm viewers with humor and the character’s own confusion, before shocking them with a gruesome death.

Gyllenhaal has wonderful on-screen chemistry with co-stars Robert Downey Jr., who plays a crime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and Mark Ruffalo, who plays a detective. Their repartee creates a deceptively funny film. The comedy lulls the audience into a false sense of security, one Fincher seems set on destroying.

The shock of seeing a stabbing is heightened with the knowledge that you were chuckling at witty dialogue up until the moment it happened.

The film takes an interesting turn as the murder rate slows. As Gyllenhaal successfully tracks down new leads, the audience watches his obsession with the case evolve into a nearly destructive level.

Even after the film’s climax, Fincher toys with the audience’s senses. The tone swings from frightening heights of brutality to the frustrating reality that he’s still on the loose while police sift through the motions of bureaucracy. In this latter tone, Fincher proves he can make you cringe without blood being spilt.

Stylistically, “Zodiac” embodies the directorial elements that made Fincher famous: marvelous cinematography, humorous dialogue, fast-paced scenes, and period music.

“Zodiac” was made to scare its audience, but more than that, it offers new perspective on the way our society deals with mass media. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, when the Zodiac killings were actually happening, the media was exploding into the American consciousness with sitcoms, high-production-value news reports, and, of course, updates on the war in Vietnam.

The Zodiac Killer took full advantage of the country’s growing addiction to TV, and one could argue that hype and attention fueled his random acts of violence. In the end, the film indicts mass media nearly as much as the killer, himself. Fincher portrays the media not as a fact-finding source, but as a for-profit company that gives voice and confidence to the wrong people.

—Reviewer Andrew F. Nunnelly can be reached at nunnelly@fas.harvard.edu.