Charlie Shackleton’s adventure of orchestrating a documentary about the notorious Zodiac killer took an unexpected turn when his original project hit a brick wall. Initially, he intended to translate into film a memoir penned by a law enforcement officer who was convinced he had solved one of history’s most haunting unsolved murder sprees. However, after losing the necessary permissions, Shackleton changed his direction. He decided to create a film about the creation of a film that would never see the light of day, giving birth to the Zodiac Killer Project.
In the finished product, Shackleton serves as our guide, providing a deeply intriguing narration of the documentary he had dreamt of producing. He skillfully guides the viewer scene by scene through his original ideas, liberally mixing his narrative with a healthy dose of humor. But more than just a behind-the-scenes look, Shackleton’s film becomes a critique on the true-crime genre, exposing the various tools filmmakers deploy to keep their audiences intrigued while feeling informed.
Shackelton sheds light on the deceptive, sometimes fraudulent techniques typical of true crime documentaries, presenting them with a dry, ironic humor. He jests at the genre’s predictability and manipulations, much like a magician who discloses his trade’s secrets while simultaneously expressing his embarrassment over its cliched nature. In doing so, he displays his adeptness with the so-called ‘evocative B-roll’, a collage of poignant images such as crime scene tapes, blood puddles, mysterious silhouettes partially concealed in blur, subtly suggesting a crime saga.
In his documentary, he mulls over the common exploitation of certain storytelling tropes, such as the use of an ominous overhead light during the reenactment of police interrogations. In need of an intimidating police station, Shackleton hilariously substitutes it with a library. His deft hand in crafting powerful imagery – a flaming sketch of the Zodiac suspect, for instance – has the power to stir you even when you cognizantly understand it’s all a clever ploy.
Shackleton takes joy in highlighting repetitive themes in the true crime genre, such as lead investigators frequently being tagged as ‘the bulldog.’ He also points out the recent trend of employing AI technology to animate still photos, thereby producing an eerie sensation as though we’re drawn within the still, aged picture.
His original concept was to base the film off ‘The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge,’ a 2012 book by Lyndon E. Lafferty, an ex-officer of the California Highway Patrol. In his documentary, he makes use of the pseudonym appointed to the suspect by Lafferty in his book – George Russell Tucker.
While some viewers may find the withholding of the suspect’s true identity a tad disappointing, Shackleton makes it evident that his fascination lies not in unveiling the Zodiac Killer’s identity. Shackleton’s primary focus deviates to the exploration of a genre rather than the investigation of a criminal.
By adopting this approach, Shackleton creates an atmosphere where the audience feels as though they could replicate his work with nothing more than a penchant for watching a bulk of true crime documentaries. It mirrors the sense of empowerment that consumers of true-crime documentaries often feel – they can detect the cues that even the finest ‘bulldog’ investigators might have overlooked, just by perching on their couch and flipping through channels.
Interestingly, Shackleton himself has never previously ventured into the terrain of true crime filmmaking. During the composition of the Zodiac Killer Project, Shackleton feared that his critique of the genre might become redundant, considering the genre’s possible evolution beyond its used and reused tropes.
Shackleton recalls, ‘I was apprehensive that my critique would become irrelevant — that the genre might introduce novel tropes and styles — or a ground-breaking new blockbuster might revolutionize the genre — and my observations would therefore become obsolete.’
However, his fears were unfounded. ‘Despite the apprehensions that haunted me throughout the editing, with each new true crime film and series that I viewed, I noticed the tropes becoming more deeply entrenched. It’s probably due to the ever-increasing speed at which these films are being produced. Hence, the most straightforward, the most reliable techniques become the crutch that filmmakers lean on.’
The perpetuation of these tried and tested tropes wasn’t lost on Shackleton, ‘Right up until the final stages of editing, I continuously stumbled upon fresh examples to insert into the montages — even the latest releases in the genre resorted to using the same pieces of B-roll footage that I have seen countless times in several other shows.’