Zodiac

While I make every effort to be early for the movies (there’s nothing worse than stumbling around in the dark after a movie has started trying to find seats!), I’m glad I made the effort for Zodiac.

In fact I was the first to arrive for the screening I saw, so chose to sit in the back row. The next two people who walked in gave voice to my logic. “Better sit up the back for this,” one said to the other.

And why not? After all the “Zodiac” killer who terrorised the Los Angles region in the late 1960’s was never actually caught, so for all anyone knew, he may have been there. In the cinema with us. Who really knows?

While the producers of the film think they know who the person who only called himself Zodiac, and taunted police with threating letters during his killing spree was, to date no one is 100 per cent certain of his identity.

This is a long movie, it clocks in at almost three hours, but it is a long story, spanning more than 20 years, as it follows three people who become caught up, almost to the point of obsession, with solving the case.

Yet there is not a wasted moment, nor even the feeling of time dragging, and the story, driven mainly by the unknown and suspense, rather than excessive violence or gore, is as enthralling as it is morbid.

Perhaps the most suspenseful scene occurs towards the of the of the movie, the basement scene. “There aren’t many basements in California…” Brilliantly done!