The Zodiac Killer is a 1971 American slasher film directed by Tom Hanson, with a cast including Hal Reed, Bob Jones, Ray Lynch and Tom Pittman. The story is a heavily fictionalized dramatization of the crimes attributed to the Zodiac Killer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unlike the real case, the film invents a name, day job and back story for the killer and departs substantially from the documented investigation.
Plot
The film covers a fictionalized month in the life of its Zodiac character (played by Hal Reed), whose identity as the killer is withheld until late in the first act. A friend, Grover — a financially troubled, divorced truck driver — suffers a breakdown, takes his daughter hostage, and during a police standoff falsely declares himself the Zodiac before being shot dead. The killer then telephones police to deny that the dead man was the Zodiac and embarks on a killing spree, depicted as a postal carrier and a Satanist who targets people who mock him. A final act presents an implied motive involving the killer’s institutionalized, mentally ill father, and closes with a monologue in which the killer boasts he will never be caught.
Production and release as an alleged Zodiac trap
In interviews given in 2012 and 2017, director Tom Hanson said the production was conceived in part as a scheme to catch the real Zodiac, on the theory that the killer would attend the premiere. The film opened on 1971-04-07 at San Francisco’s RKO Golden Gate Theater, with a contest offering a Kawasaki-donated motorcycle. Patrons received cards reading “I think the Zodiac kills because,” were asked to complete the phrase, and dropped them into a box; according to Hanson’s account a hidden volunteer read each entry and compared the handwriting against samples of the Zodiac’s writing, with plainclothes officers ready to detain anyone whose handwriting matched or who claimed to be the Zodiac. No arrest is reported to have resulted.
Cast
Credited cast members include Hal Reed (Jerry), Bob Jones (Grover), Ray Lynch (Sgt. Pittman), Tom Pittman (Officer Heller), Mary Darrington, Frank Sanabek, Ed Quigley, Bertha Dahl, Dion Marinkovich, Doodles Weaver, Gloria Gunn, Richard Styles, Manny Cardoza, Norma Takaki and Donna Register.
The film was later restored and reissued, including a 4K presentation and a Blu-ray release through the American Genre Film Archive in 2017.