10 Devious Ways Movies Tried To Trick You

Who is the 'Zodiac Killer'? Well, the short answer is... we still don't know. 

The mystery surrounding the identity of the serial killer has persisted since his merciless reign of terror within the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s. 

David Fincher's 2007 film offers a fascinating insight into the phenomenon that surrounded the killer and the infamy he achieved through his cryptic letters and random killings through the eyes of law enforcement, the media and the Zodiac himself. 

The film's long-standing admiration and appreciation almost 20 years later is due to a culmination of reasons, with one outstanding factor being Fincher's refusal to brand Arthur Leigh Allen (chillingly portrayed by John Carroll Lynch) as the killer, unlike the adaptation's author, Robert Graysmith.

Graysmith is the narrative nucleus of the film, played by an impressive Jake Gyllenhaal. In the book that the film is based on, Zodiac: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer, Graysmith concluded that Allen was his man.

However, Fincher opted to take a different route in his cinematic interpretation. 

Instead, he chose to have each supposed 'Zodiac' killer that appears on screen be played by a different actor, allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions regarding who may or may not be the real Zodiac. The decision to do so not only played into the mystery of his true identity but also exhibited the possibility of copycat killers or that there were, in fact, multiple Zodiacs... creepy.