Zodiac Killer Project

Name: Zodiac Killer Project
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Crime, Documentary
Released: November 21, 2025
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 72

2025

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Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Music Box Films | Release Date: November 21, 2025 | Not Rated

Summary: Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton was hot on the trail of the next great American true crime documentary—a riveting account of a highway patrolman's quixotic effort to identify and capture the infamous Zodiac Killer. Shackleton devised a plan, began collecting interviews, and shot “evocative B-roll” footage of ghostly California freeways andFilmmaker Charlie Shackleton was hot on the trail of the next great American true crime documentary—a riveting account of a highway patrolman's quixotic effort to identify and capture the infamous Zodiac Killer. Shackleton devised a plan, began collecting interviews, and shot “evocative B-roll” footage of ghostly California freeways and parking lots where the killer may have once lurked. And then the project fell apart, leaving Shackleton with fragments of the unfinished film and time to ruminate on shortcuts and signifiers of the ubiquitous genre. Zodiac Killer Project emerges from the ash heap to probe and deconstruct the form with the incisive eye of a true crime connoisseur.… Expand

Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Mystery, Crime, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 91 min

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Critic Reviews

The Daily Beast Nick Schager

Jan 28, 2025

The result is even better than his initial design: a sharp, hilarious, self-aware, and acutely insightful work of both celebration and critique. Read full review

The Film Stage Jordan Raup

Jan 28, 2025

Never laboring too exhaustively on a single trope, yet feeling comprehensive in the breadth of what’s dissected, Shackleton has crafted an entertaining, even self-deprecating investigation into a global addiction. Read full review

Keith Phipps

Nov 21, 2025

There’s another level to it as well: Even while laying bare the mechanics he would use to tell a story likely to trip viewers’ bullshit meters and calling out one genre cliche after another, Zodiac Killer Project almost works as a compelling true crime doc anyway, up to the way it repackages a crushing anticlimax as a thrilling conclusion. Read full review

IndieWire David Ehrlich

Jan 29, 2025

Like “This Is Not a Film” before it, Zodiac Killer Project sees its director leveraging their misfortune into an impish and hyper-resourceful attack on the oppressive strictures of modern storytelling (in this case the rigid conventions of the true-crime genre rather than the mandates of a censorious regime), one that allows Shackleton to achieve a measure of freedom through the act of detailing his own cage. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Sheila O'Malley

Nov 21, 2025

The film Shackleton wanted to make clearly wasn’t a passion project coming from his deepest soul. It’s not like he’s Orson Welles yearning for the unfairly butchered “Magnificent Ambersons.” “Zodiac Killer Project” is fairly thin in both conception and execution, but it is very much “my kind of thing,” particularly his dry, humorous tone. He makes a good and entertaining guide. Read full review

Robert Abele

Dec 8, 2025

In a year that’s seen a valuable rethink of how we process crime stories — from the eye-opening documentaries “Predators” and “The Perfect Neighbor” to Caroline Fraser’s deeply researched book “Murderland” — Shackleton’s perspective is still an intriguing, worthy provocation regarding our cultural bloodlust. Read full review

Collider Therese Lacson

Jan 28, 2025

Unable to make his ideal documentary about the Zodiac Killer due to a rights issue, Shackleton breaks down the movie he might have made in painful detail that reveals a shocking lack of self-awareness, systematically dismantling the genre without an ounce of introspection. Read full review

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