Director
Jonathan Wright
Cast
Shane West - Mick Branson
Leslie Bibb - Zoe Branson
Matt Craven - Harvey
Stephen McHattie - Zodiac
I became interested in these murders for a short while after watching the 2007 movie Zodiac with Robert Downy, Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, and Mark Ruffalo. How a murderer could be so hard to find after toying the law enforcement was absolutely intriguing.
I read the book Zodiac by Robert Graysmith who's the main character of the movie. After reading it, I had the impression that maybe the Zodiac Killer had some assistance. Perhaps not in murdering people, but at least in alluding authorities.
Awakening the Zodiac starts in 1968 with the murder of two teenagers, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, who are parked alone on Lake Herman Road in Benecia, Calif., just shortly after they have an encounter with a police officer. This, of course, is based on the true case involving the Zodiac.
The officer disturbs their romantic privacy because they're not allowed to park there at night.
And not even one minute goes by as the officer leaves the frame when another car pulls up. The driver gets out, approaches the car, and shoots both teens.
And I'm left wondering where that cop went! He had to still be there. He couldn't have driven off that fast.
Afterwards, the movie transitions to modern day Virginia where Mick Bradley (Shane West) and his wife, Zoe Branson (Leslie Bibb), are trying to turn their financial instability into something sturdy.
Mick does so by purchasing an abandoned storage locker in the hopes of finding valuables and selling them for profit.
Mick goes halfsies on the storage unit with his pawnbroker buddy, Harvey (Matt Craven- Jacob's Ladder, X-Men: First Class).
At first, it looks as though the contents from the locker are meager until Harvey discovers a few film reels.
It turns out the films are of the Zodiac filming himself committing the murder depicted at the beginning of the movie. Another depicts what appears to be the murders of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepherd which took place in 1969 at Lake Berryessa in Napa, Calif. While Cecelia died from being repeatedly stabbed, Bryan did not.
The trio find out that discovering this new evidence against the Zodiac could lead to a huge monetary reward. 
So, they break into the storage facility office in order to locate the owner of the locker. They find it's registered to a "Betty Ferguson."
So, they drive to her home which appears uninhabited, and break in. But they find an old man inside who still lives there.
It turns out the old man is Betty's son, Benjamin. He and his shotgun find the three intruders and is about to blow them away. They manage to talk their way out of it, however.
Betty's husband, by the way, is Balthazar. I don't know if the fact all three of their names start with "B" means anything, or is some kind of Easter egg, but by the end of the movie I didn't even care.
Those unfamiliar with the Zodiac murders, the killer sent coded messages to police and local Bay Area newspapers. While some codes have been deciphered, one particular code has yet to be decoded. And this code supposedly contains the Zodiac Killer's identity according to a letter he wrote to the press. .
After reviewing more of the found footage, Harvey spots a code decipher briefly in one of the shots. It's a clue long sought after for 50 years.
He uses this brief clip to try and decipher the Zodiac's code that supposedly contains his identity. And he does.
Off camera, somehow the Zodiac figures out what's happening and does what he can to stop them all.
How the killer figures all of this out is beyond me. I understand it goes without depiction that the Zodiac knows his locker is sold off. And we catch glimpses of him, especially when he murders the manager of the locker facility. So, he could have gathered some information from her. Or, do we assume that since he's the elusive Zodiac, he's just really smart. After all, he's "elusive." It's not clear. Overall, this movie is predictable and is lacking substance.
Anyone whose seen enough movies knows it's not going to end well when civilians take it upon themselves to investigate an infamous murderer, especially one as slippery as the Zodiac.
But how did the Zodiac know Harvey was conducting his own private investigation and attempting to decipher the infamous coded letter authorities were unable to decode for so long?
There's a lot of room for stronger writing in this movie.
The purpose of this movie is to entertain and keep us suspense and trepidation until the resolution at the end. I suppose it fulfills that expectation.
And I was intrigued to find out what was going to happen in the climatic third act. Still, despite that, if it wasn't for this blog and my writing about Awakening the Zodiac, I'd probably soon forget I ever watched this. There's some slight gore and gashing, but it's more of a thriller than a horror movie.
It's an interesting premise for a movie. But it's weak in writing. Its pace and energy is a bit listless. And its story is too predictable.
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| Shane West and Leslie Bibb in Awakening the Zodiac. |
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