The Zodiac Killer

Wow. This is a keeper. Loosely based on the Zodiac's reign of terror, this laugh-out-loud horror-thriller fully satisfies the right type of viewer. While the acting is the source for most of the hilarity, there are scenes that actually provide some surreal, creepy moments. That's sometimes hard for filmmakers on $1.05 budget. This holds up to repeated viewings and never fails to entertain. What we need is a new film about the Zodiac killings, probably some of the most interesting, yet sadly, unsolved crimes of the last century. This release from Academy is misspelled as THE ZODIAK KILLER, so take that in consideration when looking for around for it.

This low, low budget thriller attempts to seriously cast a light on the reality of serial killers in our society, purporting to be "based on the facts". It soon came in the wake of the real life Zodiac murders that plagued San Francisco in the late 1960s. While obviously it's not nearly as polished or as well known as "Dirty Harry", it is a genuinely interesting curio. This viewer actually thought that the acting wasn't that bad; in fact, it's better than one might ordinarily find in such B level fare.

At first, we follow the day to day activities of two guys: harried mailman Jerry (Hal Reed, "The Doberman Gang") and volatile truck driver Grover (Bob Jones). Jerry comes across as a nice enough, polite enough man to others, while Bob likes to impress women by creating a false identity of a successful businessman. While the characters are somewhat entertaining to watch, they're just not as intriguing as the murder spree that will soon begin in earnest. While the killer will be taunting the authorities and the media with calls and letters, two frustrated detectives, Sgt. Pittman (Ray Lynch) and Officer Heller (Tom Pittman) will try to work the case.

The raw, gritty approach is a plus, although "The Zodiac Killer" might not be trashy or exploitative enough for some viewer tastes. Location shooting is decent; there's sufficient violence and a little bit of gore. At times screenwriters Ray Cantrell and Manny Cardoza and director Tom Hanson create some humour with the material. We see our ego-driven, confident maniac (who's identified sooner in the movie than one might expect) actually kill one woman with her own trunk hood, and another with her own spare tire.

While there's nothing really special here, this makes for some mildly amusing entertainment for seekers of obscure curiosities.

Six out of 10.

I must admit I had to laugh out loud when Doodles Weaver, a long-time comic actor, appeared in a small part as the Zodiac Killer's next door neighbor.Doodles was a holdover from the Fifties' Golden Age of Television and he had the funniest lines in this movie. Some of the murder scenes were rather intense and I felt that movie held my attention. The Zodiac in this movie had no real m.o for the police to follow and this perhaps explains why he was never captured in real life. I found it interesting that the murderer in this movie carried around his disguises (wig, fake glasses with a plastic nose and, most noticeably, a black executioner outfit. The attack of the young couple is very graphic and still quite powerful after all of these years. If you're interested in the real-life Zodiac case, you'll need to take this movie with a grain of salt!

A cheapo expose on the Zodiac murders that occurred in the San Francisco Bay area in 1968 and 1969 that benefits from its year of release in 1971, not too far removed, the stringent budget which lends the project a degree of authenticity, as well as the focus on who the film portrays as the killer, a postal clerk who loves rabbits, and buries one that died near a cross, in a strikingly bizarre scene. Compared with the film that came out in 2007, this one stands up pretty well, especially for connoisseurs of films like this, no-budget but an eye for creativity. It made it on to the TCM Underground films, a wise decision by the program director.

This 1971 horror/crime film is really low-budget. The acting is bad and the direction is flat. It doesn't really shed any new insight into the Zodiac case. It basically is just 86 minutes of people getting shot, stabbed, sliced, beaten, and killed in a a variety of bloody ways. Pretty much all the names of the victims have been changed and we know who the killer is early on, and it basically just follows him as he claims his victims. It is pretty boring, has bad music, and lots of cheesy 70s fashions (I just love the part with that guy's wig at the beginning, haha!). The scene with the sunbathers getting stabbed to death in the woods is creepy and bloody, but everything else is laughable. "The Zodiak Killer" is a cheap, low-budget effort that some may like and others may despise.