Zodiac Killer Project

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Zodiac Killer Project

2025

1h 32m

Documentary

Crime

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Popcornmeter

86%

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35 Reviews

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0 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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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

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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

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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

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Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

It's skilfully shot and edited with a knowingly evil grim to give the audience what we expect, all while continually reminding us that we're being manipulated by the art of cinema.

Rated: 4/5

May 8, 2025

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Amber Wilkinson

Eye for Film

A surprisingly droll deconstruction of crime reconstruction.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 27, 2025

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Paul Emmanuel Enicola

The Movie Buff

It’s a film that’s as much about not making a movie as it is about the subject itself, and that means it carries the limitations of its own conceit.

Rated: C

Mar 19, 2025

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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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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
Production Co: Field of Vision (II), Loop
Genre: Documentary, Crime
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 32m