Filmmakers can sometimes spend years of their lives researching and doing pre-production on a project — only for it never to see the light of day. Take for instance, Tim Burton’s Superman Lives or Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon, these are both films that due to creative differences or just time never saw the light of day. But when negotiating the rights and doing pre-production for his latest film, documentarian Charlie Shackleton didn’t let losing those rights to the book he planned to base his documentary on stop him. Instead he soldiered on crafting a film that is equal parts documentary and visual essay, eviscerating the true crime sub-genre through a 90 meditation filled with rabbit holes, into not only one of its most popular subjects, but it the cinematic language it uses.
Zodiac Killer Project begins with Shackleton simply recounting how he was looking to adapt Lyndon E Lafferty’s take on the killer, The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge – and how negotiations mysteriously broke down. This was after, doing the bulk of the pre-production on the project that was based on the tome written by Lyndon – a police officer, who after a chance rest stop encounter, believed he knew who the infamous serial killer was. Lyndon documented not only his attempt to arrest his suspect, but a possible law enforcement cover up enacted, once he revealed his suspect to his higher ups. While not the most popular theory out there on the Zodiac, it’s entertaining at the sheer lengths Lyndon went after his official investigation was shut down to prove his theory.
The film is as much a reconstruction of what the director envisioned for his film to be, as it is a deconstruction of the true crime sub-genre. Shackleton gives us the play by play of what his film would have been about narrated by himself in a casual conversation, in what feels almost like a director’s commentary about a film he never made. He does so while tiptoeing around information that would be exclusive to the book as opposed to fair use, it’s something he discusses in of the film’s many legal segways, where he delves into the lengths he’s gone to be able to tell his story. Shot in 35mm to borrow its visual palette from the time period, Shackleton shows how his film would have employed and used the well worn tropes and visuals from True Crime to tell his story.
When Shackleton isn’t discussing his project, the film sometimes forays into a visual essay mode as he uses his re-enactments, voiceovers and choice of evocative b-roll to comment on the tricks of the trade, when it comes to these films and their impact on viewers. My favorite being the market for “backtors”, or the actors that you only see from behind in these re-enactments. He also explores a few of the tropes through comparisons showing for example: how most of these films choose to employ a similar opening credit style, or a shockingly similar voice over, pulling from some of the biggest on Netflix to illustrate his point. It’s these moments that really show that not only that Shackleton had done his homework, but exhibits a complete understanding of the sub-genre as a whole.
Zodiac Killer Project is essentially the Walk Hard of true crime docs, in that once you’ve seen it you won’t be able to view this sub-genre and its tricks in the same light. While the premise may be a hard sell to some, since it’s not THE doc, but a doc – about the doc he didn’t make. I think Shackleton is charismatic enough to hold the audience’s attention and Lafferty’s story is pretty damn funny as well to give true crime fans another reason to stick around. Zodiac Killer Project demonstrates a punk rock resourcefulness that could have possibly saved some of the films above, thanks to this thoroughly intriguing and entertaining approach, that by doing so unexpectedly offers up a new Zodiac take, that through its round about way has something new to say about the extremely well documented case.
