Zodiac Killer Project is a lemonade-from-lemons documentary that covers both the chronicling of a movie that never was (and never will be) and the true crime genre writ large. In exploring the tropes and tricks of the genre, director Charlie Shackleton reveals the homogenization of true crime documentaries. In doing so, he lovingly pokes fun at the genre, while also raising interesting questions along the way.
For Shackleton, Zodiac Killer Project springs from his failed attempt to adapt Lyndon E. Lafferty’s book “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge.” After negotiations for the book rights fell through, Shackleton couldn’t quite let the project go. From what we hear about what he intended, it may be better that this is where he ended up. In his narration, Shackleton describes many scenes that would’ve appeared in his film while the camera lingers on shots of empty parking spaces, various buildings that would’ve been locations in the film, and nature.
Shackleton is an engaging and affable narrator. He brings a conversational tone that is inviting. It’s easy to picture yourself sitting across the table from him, having coffee while he tells his tales. Shackleton, and the film, is at his best when he talks about the nuts and bolts of true crime filmmaking: how to stage scenes for maximum impact, shading elements of the story to build drama and/or dance around potential legal land mines. He also notes the use of “evocative B-roll” to help establish key info the most generic way possible (such as old home footage of kids playing in front yards) or the use of “back-tors,” the faceless people who walk across rooms (often obscured by shadow and fuzzy focus). Shackleton accompanies these descriptions with examples from a litany of the most popular true crime documentaries of the last 15 years.
Seeing all of the shows and films side by side calls into question the whole true crime enterprise. There has always been an insidiousness to the genre, with the best examples tapping into larger themes (like the societal and systemic failures that lead to the documented crimes). When a documentary leads to an arrest, an acquittal, or some other real world change, it feels like the whole endeavor is worth it. But too often the result is exploitation at the hands of amatuer sleuths.
I’ve enjoyed plenty of true crime books, movies, podcasts, and shows over the years, so I definitely felt seen by Shackleton and I suspect others will too. I can’t remember when, but at some point I had a bit of a reckoning with myself and realized I needed to be a more discerning viewer. I needed to get away from the salaciousness of it all. While the Zodiac Killer Project doesn’t really go deep on this topic, Shackleton gets close enough to make me consider, again, my relationship to true crime. All told, Zodiac Killer Project keeps things fairly light. Given Shackleton’s obvious affection and knowledge of the genre, I’m left wishing he had been more critical of the genre. As it is, his film is entertaining and worth thinking about. I saw it last night, and today SXSW is premiering a documentary about one of Austin’s most notorious crimes (the Yogurt Shop Murders). There’s a message there.
