5/10
low budget, but not bad
18 July 2005
My wife runs a video store so we try to watch at least part of most every new release to get a feel for it. So The Zodiac Killer arrived at the store and we gave it a shot. We could tell immediately from the look of it that it was a low budget affair and expected the worst. We've turned off so many of these horror cheapies after only a few minutes. However, we were pleasantly surprised. I won't say that it was a work of genius, but the story was very interesting and kept us both intrigued. It had a bit of a low budget cheesiness, and some questionable acting here and there, but personally I would rather see a low budget flick like this that has some originality than a big budget movie that looks great but doesn't deliver anything you haven't seen a hundred times.

The DVD case says it's from the director of The Boogeyman, and it is...just don't confuse the 1980 film "The Boogeyman" with the 2005 film "Boogeyman." A shrewd piece of marketing to be sure. The director of The Zodiac Killer, Ulli Lommel, also stars in it.

I would warn viewers who are of the faint of heart to steer clear of this movie, however. It contains lots of crime scene photos that are very disturbing, and that I have to assume are real. It's got some pretty gruesome stuff in it, even for gore fans.

Overall, I would say this movie is average, but the idea is entertaining and unique. A little more money and better actors would help it out, but as far as low budget horror/thrillers go, it's not bad. It's definitely a cut above most in its class. As I stated earlier, I was pleasantly surprised. Even though it doesn't succeed on every level, it's still more enjoyable than a lot of movies that cost 50 times or more what this one probably cost to produce, and I can appreciate and respect that.
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