''Curse of the Zodiac'' is a 2007 American horror film from

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

, written and directed by

Ulli Lommel Ulli Lommel (21 December 1944 – 2 December 2017) was a German actor and director, noted for his many collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his association with the New German Cinema movement. Lommel spent time at The Factory and ...

, inspired by the true story of the hunt for a notorious

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

known as "

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...

" who claimed responsibility for the still unsolved murders. It stars Cassandra Church and Jack Quinn, and was released directly to DVD.

Plot

The Zodiac Killer (Jack Quinn) terrorizes the

San Francisco Bay area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

in the early 1970s. He murders random people and uses cryptic symbols and coded messages to taunt the media and the San Francisco Police, leaving the people of San Francisco in fear.

Cast

*Jack Quinn *Cassandra Church *Jon E. Nimetz *Victoria Ullmann *Lyn Beausoleil *Colette Clair

Reception

A half-point out of a possible five was given to the film by Jon Condit of Dread Central, who concluded, "The sorry fact is that ''Curse of the Zodiac'' is a total mess". David Johnson of DVD Verdict heavily criticized ''Curse of the Zodiac'', writing, "The movie plays out like this:

Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history. It became a fixture of popular c ...

wanders around, the camera shakes a lot, he kills a girl, the camera shakes a lot, the psychic gets a headache and has a vision of the crime scene, the camera shakes a lot, Zodiac calls the journalist and talks trash, the camera shakes a lot and repeat x4. Even if you're able to penetrate the insane editing, the narrative within will almost certainly bore your migraine-having ass. Add to that, the acting is universally atrocious—the scenes with the psychic and her boyfriend are a case study on how to miss cues and flub lines". Bloody Disgusting's Brian W. Collins included ''Curse of the Zodiac'' on his 10 Worst Horror Films of 2007 list, in which he stated, "Not getting a single detail right about the Zodiac (other than the setting) is the least of its problems. It took effort to even get through the entire film, which consisted mainly of 3 scenes repeated over and over (killer taunts the cop, killer taunts the girl, killer kills some hippies we have never seen before)". Garrett and Sean Neil of

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, Internet forum, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard Kyanka, Richard "Lowtax" K ...

awarded a near "perfect" score of -49/-50, and described the film as nothing more than "a twisted labyrinth of spinning, out-of-focus cameras and pointless gibberish".

References

External links

* American serial killer films American films based on actual events Films set in the 1970s Crime films based on actual events Films set in San Francisco 2007 direct-to-video films Films directed by Ulli Lommel 2007 horror films 2007 films Cultural depictions of the Zodiac Killer 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-horror-film-stub