ZODIAC background info

Back
in the late Sixties and early Seventies, a time when free love and
peace was coming to an end, a monster loomed in the shadows.
This monster haunted

San Francisco

and the area’s surrounding it. It
started with the ultimate urban legend as a young couple stopped on

Lake Herman Road

sometime around 11:15pm, Friday, December 20th, 1968.
The couple parked their car. They
were not alone. Someone came
out of the darkness to take the lives of David Farraday and Betty
Lou Jensen, and that someone came to be known as Zodiac.

In
the following years, he claimed other victims with only seven being
connected to him by the police. Two
of which survived. But many
lives were shattered by the man. The
man who prided himself on the murders by sending letters to local
newspapers and the police, he would even call to report his own
work. The images of him are
the stuff that nightmares are made of, including the description
from one of his victims, a woman named Cecilia Shepard who spoke to
Detective Sergeant Dave Collins from the Napa County Sheriff’s
department in her final hour of life after being brutally stabbed by
Zodiac. Collins is retired
now, but still remembers her final words about her assailant.

With
all this history, David Fincher returns to the darkest roots of all,
the legend of a murderer who taunted police, and had an entire city
in fear. But ZODIAC is nothing
like his earlier works. There
is no ironic sense of humor as there was in FIGHT CLUB, or the
stylist horror of SE7EN. He
takes a very Seventies approach with the film and he tells the story
of three men involved in the manhunt.
But don’t expect it to be your typical Fincher film, ZODIAC
feels more like ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN as opposed to PANIC ROOM.
This is a dialogue heavy, yet unnervingly creepy look back in
history.

Based
on the novel by Robert Graysmith, ZODIAC tells the story of the
investigation that failed to bring the mysterious figure to justice.
Mr. Graysmith was a cartoonist for the San Francisco
Chronicle back in 1968 when the letters began to arrive.
The search to find the killer destroyed his marriage, but it
also lead to his belief the he found the identity of the killer.
If you have not read his books, “Zodiac”
or “Zodiac
Unmasked” you will be able to find out, with the aid of
Fincher, exactly who he feels the culprit may have been and offers
up some strong (yet not absolute) proof.
After meeting Mr. Graysmith at the Los Angeles Junket for the
new film, I get the feeling he may very well be correct.

We
also were invited to meet three police officers directly involved in
the case including retired Captain, Ken Narlow with the Napa County
Sheriff department. He was in
charge of the investigation into the stabbings of Bryan Hartnell and
Cecilia Shepard. He along with
Dave Collins and George Bawart, a retired detective with the Vallejo
Police Department shared with us crime scene photos and many other
pieces of evidence regarding the investigation.
Listening to Mr. Collins talk about his final moments with
Cecilia after the violent attack chilled me to the bone.
Just imagine watching while a stranger approaches you from
behind a tree as he lowers a mask onto his head.

David
Fincher’s ZODIAC is a chilling look into the lives destroyed by
this killer, not only the victims but those who tried desperately to
find out his identity. It was
interesting speaking to those involved, and surprisingly, they all
did not agree on who the true identity of Zodiac was.
This individual who spread panic and terror also seemed to
know how to keep hidden. He
changed his modus operandi and killed in several locations while
bragging about it and leaving many confused and frightened.
And to this day, the real truth is not known and may never
be. But ZODIAC makes a pretty
believable case.

Stay
tuned to JoBlo.com for interviews with actors Mark Ruffalo and Chloe
Sevigny from the picture which opens Friday, March 3rd.

Let
me know what you think. Send
questions and comments to [email protected].