What do you do when you’ve meticulously planned out a documentary, only to fail to acquire the rights to the book it’s based on at the very last moment? A lot of filmmakers would throw their hands up, have nervous breakdowns and then go back to the drawing board.
When that exact scenario happened to British producer/director Charlie Shackleton, he opted instead to make a documentary about the documentary that he’s never going to make. Quite wonderfully, something about the process of breaking down his original film, scene by scene, allowed Shackleton to realize that, had it ever been made, his project would have conformed to formulas, reverted to clichés and, in some cases, actively obscured the truth for the sake of dramatic narrative. Why? Because the film was going to be yet another true crime documentary.
Shackleton’s project was going to be about the Zodiac Killer. Or rather, about one traffic cop’s dogged pursuit of a man he believed was the Zodiac Killer. That cop, Lyndon E. Lafferty, wrote The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up, AKA The Silenced Badge about what he believed to be an active cover-up within the Solano County sheriff’s office. Lafferty’s 2012 book remains widely available today, though the man he believed was the Zodiac is rarely considered one of the most likely suspects.
Zodiac Killer Project distinguishes itself from the plethora of other documentaries about the Bay Area serial killer by featuring the Zodiac only as a kind of afterthought. There are no details here about the actual crimes, no mention of the victims, and no mind given to the cops who were actually assigned to investigate the case. At one point, when a voice off-camera urges Shackleton to share details about the crimes, the filmmaker replies: “That’s the only saving grace of not getting to make the film. We don’t have to retell the story of the Zodiac Killer for the thousandth time.”
Without doubt, the best parts of Zodiac Killer Project emerge when Shackleton, in a disarmingly conversational style, breaks down the tropes and visual standards we have come to expect from contemporary true crime documentaries. At one point, he describes how the opening title sequence of his documentary “kind of would have made itself.” He goes on to compare the (incredibly similar) title sequences of The Most Dangerous Animal of All, The Jinx, Evil Genius, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, Don’t F–k With Cats, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, The Case Against Adnan Syed, Amanda Knox, Making a Murderer, as well as Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey and I Love You, Now Die.
