Zodiac Killer Project

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Zodiac Killer Project

1h 32m

Documentary

Crime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

40 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

The true crime genre's ubiquity is driven by people's endless fascination, disgust, and -- bizarrely -- search for comfort in genre conventions that still have the ability to generate complex emotions despite their predictability and familiarity. Having tried and failed to make a documentary about the infamous Zodiac Killer, filmmaker Charlie Shackleton walks the viewer through what his film would have been like and why, using Bay Area landscapes, reenactments, film and TV clips, and voice-over. In this wholly original, self-aware cinematic work, a filmmaker chews over what might have been and playfully probes the inner workings of a genre at saturation point.

Critics Consensus

Director Charlie Shackleton rescues victory from the jaws of defeat in Zodiac Killer Project, a revelatory rumination on filmmaking and the overindulgences of the true crime genre.

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Charlie Shackleton

Director

Charlie Shackleton

Narrator

Guy Robbins

Actor

Lee Nicholas Harris

Actor

Catherine Bray

Producer

Anthony Ing

Producer

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Any students and/or devotees of the true-crime spree rampant in our modern storytelling will find Zodiac Killer Project a must-see.

Mar 9, 2025

Full Review

Adam Kempenaar

Filmspotting

…a deconstruction of true crime… [that] comes around to arriving at some of the same kind of epiphanies that that material, in its best form, often arrives at.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 3, 2025

Full Review

David Fear

Rolling Stone

It’s a full-frontal assault on a way-too-popular genre, done with a trickster’s deft touch.

Feb 28, 2025

Full Review

Soham Gadre

Film Inquiry

Shackleton... not only shares a first name with Charlie Kaufmann, but also a propensity for tying his stories into interesting meta-fictional knots.

Aug 28, 2025

Full Review

Ross McIndoe

The Skinny

It's not just crime doc conventions that Zodiac Killer Project dissects, but the economic factors driving the industry and the ethical questions that plague it.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 19, 2025

Full Review

James Mottram

The List

Shackleton examines our thirst for grisly murders, and, if nothing else, it’ll pique your interest in the unsolved Zodiac case.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 18, 2025

Full Review

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ang n

I thought this movie sounded cool, it was really dumb. I started a film festival and spent the first half of the movie wondering if it would get better in the second half of the movie thinking about walking out. I did leave early. I can like a film about a film that wasn't made (eg., Jodorowsky's Dune) but this was childish and a waste of time. Not really a documentary.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/05/25

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Synopsis

The true crime genre's ubiquity is driven by people's endless fascination, disgust, and -- bizarrely -- search for comfort in genre conventions that still have the ability to generate complex emotions despite their predictability and familiarity. Having tried and failed to make a documentary about the infamous Zodiac Killer, filmmaker Charlie Shackleton walks the viewer through what his film would have been like and why, using Bay Area landscapes, reenactments, film and TV clips, and voice-over. In this wholly original, self-aware cinematic work, a filmmaker chews over what might have been and playfully probes the inner workings of a genre at saturation point.

Director: Charlie Shackleton
Producer: Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing, Charlie Shackleton
Distributor: Music Box Films
Production Co: Field of Vision (II), Loop
Genre: Documentary, Crime
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 21, 2025, Limited
Runtime: 1h 32m