The Zodiac is an American crime/horror drama dramatizing events tied to the Zodiac Killer, who was active in Northern California during the late 1960s and 1970s. It was directed by Alexander Bulkley, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Kelly Bulkley. The cast includes Justin Chambers, Robin Tunney, Rory Culkin, Philip Baker Hall, Brad Henke, Marty Lindsey, Rex Linn, and William Mapother.
Though often dated to 2005, the film opened on a limited release of about 10 theaters on 2006-03-17 with an MPAA R rating. It reached DVD in North America on 2006-08-29 and in the United Kingdom on 2006-09-18.
Story
The narrative follows a fictional Vallejo Police Department detective, Matt Parish (Justin Chambers), whose pursuit of the killer becomes an obsession that strains his family — wife Laura (Robin Tunney) and their young son Johnny (Rory Culkin). Chief Frank Perkins (Philip Baker Hall) heads the operation. The Zodiac’s voice (Brian Bloom) is heard throughout in phone calls and letters. The film fictionalizes real geography and events: the opening teen killings are placed on “Lake Helena Road” (a stand-in for Lake Herman Road) and dated 1968-12-20, with the town named Vallejo standing in for Benicia. The plot also depicts a parking-lot shooting of a couple followed by an anonymous confession call, and threatening encoded letters sent to Bay Area newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. The film closes by noting the killer was never captured.
Reception
Reviews were largely unfavorable. The Wikipedia article reports a Rotten Tomatoes score with 8 of 31 reviews positive (about 26%, average ~4.1/10), a Metacritic critic score of 21/100 (from five reviews), and an IMDb user score around 5.3/10. Audience scores were noted as higher than critic scores.
Cast (selected)
- Justin Chambers as Det. Matt Parish
- Robin Tunney as Laura Parish
- Rory Culkin as Johnny Parish
- Shelby Alexis Irey as Bobbie
- Philip Baker Hall as Chief Frank Perkins
- Brian Bloom as the Zodiac Killer (voice)
- Brad Henke as Bill Gregory
- Rex Linn as Jim Martinez
- William Mapother as Dale Coverling (reporter)
The characters Matt Parish, Laura Parish, Johnny Parish, Frank Perkins, Bill Gregory, Jim Martinez and Dale Coverling are fictional creations of the film and do not correspond to documented historical figures in the case.