gavin6942 The San Francisco area is beset by a series of seemingly random murders without motive or pattern. The police are taunted by phone calls and letters. Could the maniac be the violent truck driver, or the seemingly mild-mannered mailman, or even a cop? This film has come to be known largely for its historical value. Allegedly, producer-director Tom Hanson made the film not so much to try and make a good movie so much as he wanted to call attention to the killer. His plan was to screen the film in San Francisco and assume the real killer was vain enough to attend. The screening indeed happened, but if the killer attended no one knows.The quality of the film is not particularly good. The sound in particular is rather choppy. In retrospect, some have said the quality was never the point, it was merely intended as a trap. Even if that is true, let us not dwell on the poor quality. Besides the sound, the picture is no worse than the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. In fact, in many cases it is better and the acting is far better than a Lewis film. Appropriately, "Zodiac Killer" had been released by Something Weird Video, the home of many Lewis films, for the DVD.And now, Something Weird has partnered with the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) to bring a Blu-ray to the masses! We get a new 4K scan from the only surviving 16mm blow-up elements. There is a commentary track with Tom Hanson and Manny Nedwick, as well as interviews with Hanson and Nedwick. Liner notes and director Tom Hanson interview by Chris Poggiali. And even a bonus movie, the rarely-seen "Another Son of Sam" (1977) with a new 2K scan from a 35mm theatrical print.Arguably, "Zodiac Killer" did not need a 4K scan. When you are dealing with a film of this quality, whether the scan is 2K, 4K or anything else probably makes little difference. But that nitpick aside, this is definitely a cult film that should be seen. It has all the elements of exploitation that genre fans love, and it is about time it gets a wider audience. Senseless murder? Yes. A mailman being harassed by a nosy older lady? Yes. A real tragedy exploited for a film? Yes.

Wizard-8 While some viewers who sit down to watch this movie may think that they are going to see a recreation of the real Zodiac Killer rampage that happened not long before the movie was made, that is not the case. There is very little material in the movie that also happened in the true case. But that's not the real problem with the movie. The main problem is that there is very little to interest viewers. The movie is so low budget and was obviously hastily filmed that the feel of the movie is the same as if a bunch of high school students decided to make a movie over a few weekends. The narrative is also inept - there are a lot of scenes that seem to have no point except maybe to pad out the running time, and the movie seems to end where it does with a feeling that the filmmakers either ran out of money or felt they had enough footage to make a feature-length movie. If you are looking for unintended laughs, well, there are a few moments of dopey dialogue and ridiculous actions by the characters. However, the movie is really missing enough spark and hilarity to be unintentionally amusing. The only real interest the movie has at the end is to make viewers wonder what the real Zodiac Killer might have thought of this movie had he seen it.

tracyfigueira "The Zodiac Killer" is a gritty, low-budget, semidocumentary account of the notorious serial killer who terrorized California in the 1960s and who was never apprehended. The film introduces us to two archetypal "angry white men": the shy, sexually repressed postman (this before "disgrunted postal worker" became a catch phrase) and a balding, bitter, misogynistic truck driver locked in a nasty custody dispute with his ex. While not particularly well made, the film holds the viewer's interest and manages to create some suspense. Like many B movies it sheds light on aspects of the human condition too often ignored by Hollywood A movies. For once we have a film where everyone isn't good-looking, and we have a maniac who preys on both men and women instead of just going after hot chicks. Of course much of it is fictional or at least highly speculative, since we still don't know the killer's identity. "The Zodiac Killer" is available from Something Weird Video as part of its "Sharpshooter Triple Feature" along with "The Sex Killer" and "Zero In and Scream," two highly entertaining sexploitation films that compare favorably with a lot of the stuff Hollywood makes these days.

preppy-3 Fictional account of the killer in California who murdered various men and women from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. In this he's a nice guy named Jerry (Hal Reed). He's a nice man, kind to animals and sweet to women. Still he goes out and kills people for no discernible reason--they suggest it has something to do with his dad.In reality the Zodiac didn't kill that many people. This movie has recreations of the real killings and adds about eight more! With the exception of one gruesome stabbing the killings here are ineptly staged and (quite obviously) fake.There's also a subplot with a friend of Jerry's named Grover. The subplot ends halfway through the movie--and has NOTHING to do with anything else! It's all too obvious padding--and boring padding at that! There's also tons of misogynistic comments, terrible dialogue, low production values and unsure direction. This gets a 2 only for Reed who wasn't half bad. Still you can safely skip this one.