"Real Monster Movies" | Zodiac Review

I'm not much of a movie theater person, so there are an alarming number of movies on my "need to watch some day" list. Often, I see a preview, think it sounds intriguing, and put it on my mental list of things to see. Then 6 years later when browsing Netflix I see it, and decide to press Play.

Zodiac was "that" movie this weekend. My husband has told me about the Zodiac killer, and we've discussed the circumstances surrounding the serial killer, and he said "You should watch the movie some time". The caveat to that, is he's not much into horror or suspense movies, so I really only watch them when he's not here. This weekend was PAX in the Pacific Northwest, so I found myself as a single female hanging out with my dog, so I started to press Play on a lot of movies on my Netflix queue.

Zodiac qualifies as what I would call a "Real Monster Movie" meaning, the killer isn't super human, they don't have chainsaws, or razor hands but they have a sick mind, and the means to make life a living hell for a select group of individuals.

I don't in any way mean to glorify these people, but I do feel like they are what is real and scary in our world, therefore I totally think they belong in the horror category.

Zodiac is a movie from 2007 and it is a pretty close account of the Zodiac murders that took place in the late 60's and early 70's in California. Set (mostly) in San Francisco the movie follows Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr. as two employee's of the San Francisco Chronicle. They are part of a group of people that receive the the Zodiac's letters which in part were written in code demanding they get published in the paper. The letters told of the Zodiac's recent victims and where they could be found, or how it all happened, details only the police would know, or the killer himself.

Mark Ruffalo plays one of the detectives on the case whom basically goes crazy trying to figure out the Zodiac's cryptic messages. Which is when Jake Gyllenhaal steps in and becomes obsessed with the case and ends up losing his family because he spent so much time pouring over the information and ended up writing a book trying to help bring more information to light.

If you like a good thriller, watch this movie, it's very cerebral, and I'm sure you can make your own conclusions or decisions on who the Zodiac is, but if you're not familiar with the case, you should know that it's still one of California's largest unsolved mysteries. There was never a fingerprint or a piece of DNA ever found on any of the Zodiac letters. The case still remains open today.