A roller coaster of suspense

Rating: 10/10 (31 July 2013)

Based around a string of actual murders in the years of 1968-1969, "Zodiac" follows the journey of Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) as they try to discover the identity of the elusive serial killer who has begun sending letters to the police department with embedded information.
The film succeeds as the reincarnation of an actual event on film and as an original idea for a film. If the Zodiac murders never took place, this would be an exceptional and ingenious mystery drama, but since they did happen, it still does well as the reincarnation of the events of film.
The performances given by Gyllenhaal, Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. (Paul Avery) are superb and they give it their all. Other honorable mentions include Anthony Edwards (William Armstrong), and John Carroll Lynch (Arthur Leigh Allen).
Using the elements of visuals, the suspense skyrockets by using elements from a gloomy day to a sudden noise to a plain creepy setting to build suspense up in the audience. They use every trick in the book except not showing us who the killer is and if he is lurking nearby to get us fearful that the killer might have his next victim.