In the 1960s and 70s a serial killer stalked the streets of San Francisco murdering random people and taunting the public and police through cryptic letters and phone calls. The killer went by the name Zodiac. After decades of dead ends and few solid leads a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Graysmith, who had followed the case since day one, began reviewing the case files to determine the true identity of Zodiac. In 1986 he published a true crime novel revealing the identity of the man he believed was most likely the Zodiac killer.

While it’s easy to take Graysmith’s conclusions as the truth, he did ignore several important pieces of evidence. The alleged killer’s DNA, fingerprints and handwriting were all different than the evidence left by the true killer. Graysmith’s suspect died shortly after the novel was released and to this day the case remains open and unsolved.

The movie is long, about 2 hours and 40 minutes, but it holds your attention and keeps up a steady pace. Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo both do outstanding jobs portraying Graysmith and Dave Toschi, the SFPD Inspector assigned to the case. If you’re interested in seeing one person’s perspective on a true crime case, then definitely check out Zodiac.

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