yeah this is zodiac

"Yeah, this is the Zodiac..."

So the new David Fincher movie about the Zodiac killer, "Zodiac", came

out this weekend and despite it's tedious running time, uneven

reviews, and the magnetic comedy lure of "Wild Hogs" I'll probably

make an effort to see it; on the sole basis that it brought back some

old memories of my interest in serial killers in high school. It's one

of those phases you go through growing up. It may not be as common a

phase as the POGs, soccer, karate Jim Carey movies, or the Smiths

phases many of us through in our formative years, but I wouldn't say

it's a totally abnormal interest. People have always been interested

in serial killing; no other type of crime has been depicted so often

in media (with the possible exception of bank robbing).

Of course there's tons of literature that examines our morbid

fascination with it, the reflections it makes on the alienation and

nihilism of modern society, etc., etc. I think people are so intrigued

because it's the closest thing we have to real life monsters. These

entities are straight up going around, killing indiscriminately like a

gumba from Super Mario Bros. When you start the game you have no

history with the gumba, but it's there just lurking, waiting to

instantly kill you if you run into it with a touch. Such as the case

out there, people just lurking around ready to strike for reasons

exclusive only to them. It's freaky, it's fascinating.

Anyway, my take on the Zodiac; I recall the Zodiac to be both the most

boring and the most frightening serial killer I've read about. Much

like Chloe Sevingy, I never actually finished any real detailed book

about him on account of the tediousness of it all. The complex

cryptograms, the ciphers, the cryptic messages, there was so much of

it I always ended up losing interest. The most fascinating, and the

frightening parts was the fact that he was never caught (I'd say it's

a movie spoiler, but then again come on it's been like 40 years the

news is out) and the freaky getup he wore. I mean seriously, no other

serial killer wore this ridiculous pseudo Klan hood and packed a

utility belt. He was one of the only guys with enough crazy sanity to

try and conceal their identity when working. I also always imagined

he'd walk in some sort of stiff robotic manner with minimal knee

bending like C-3PO, an extra detail that further freaked me out.

Further dehumanizing him was the fact that since he was never

identified, he never had a name, just this super villain-esque title

of "The Zodiac". It was like the boogeyman. Imagine how less scary the

boogeyman would be to children if it had a name like Joe or Gary or

Ron.

There just aren't serial killers like the Zodiac anymore. Nowadays

it's just an unorganized rabble of sexually arrested loners strangling

hookers and hobos in dark alleys. It's a lot safer for us many of us

in the "mainstream" of society; unless you're hitchhiking at midnight

on the interstate, chances are you won't be a victim of a serial

killer, nobody's threatening to pick off a bus full of school kids

unless their demands are met. It's not a lament or anything, just an

observation and if the real Zodiac is still around today and catches

one of the ubiquitous commercials for the film on TV, I can totally

see him putting down his sudoku puzzle and thinking "man, that Donovan