Exception to the rule...

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2007)

Although movies about serial killers often have all the charm of a charnel house tour, this one proves the exception to the rule. That it's based on history is part of its power: seeing young lovers necking early on in the film becomes squirm-in-your-seat suspenseful when they realize that they are being cruised by... a mysterious stranger. Director Fincher manages to ratchet up the tension to an almost unbearable degree simply by allowing us to observe the mounting anxiety of the vulnerable victims. Like Hitchcock with PSYCHO, Fincher makes us- willing or unwilling (I'm sure there were some who covered their eyes at this point in the proceedings)- voyeurs. And it's this witness-to-the-scene-of-the-crime approach to storytelling that makes ZODIAC so riveting. We can watch, but we can't intervene. Now that's suspense.