When documentary maker Sam Green set out to produce a cliché-free film about the Zodiac Killer, he instead uncovered the troubling mechanics of the true crime industry. His project, based on a memoir by California highway patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty, promised a fresh take on America's most infamous cold case. But as the film unravelled, Green found himself investigating not a serial killer, but society's morbid curiosity.
Green began his documentary career in 2015, just as HBO's The Jinx and Netflix's Making a Murderer revived true crime's popularity. These shows initially felt like social justice projects, but soon gave way to formulaic franchises such as Netflix's Conversations With a Killer, built around long-lost interviews with serial killers. Despite misgivings, Green was drawn to the puzzle-solving aspect of the genre, recalling his early viewing of The Staircase.
Lafferty's book, The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up, detailed his decades-long hunt for the Bay Area killer after a chance encounter at a highway rest stop. Green acquired the rights and envisioned a film that would resist confirmation bias, including evidence that pointed away from Lafferty's suspect. Yet after 50 years of investigation, the sheer volume of evidence overwhelmed the project.
The film's collapse led Green to scrutinise the true crime industry itself. He realised that the genre's rigid formulas and familiar tropes, while entertaining, often exploit real tragedies for profit. The failed Zodiac film became a lens through which he examined how true crime packages human suffering into neat puzzles, leaving little room for the ambiguity that surrounds unsolved cases.
Green concludes that the true crime industry thrives on our appetite for resolution, even when none exists. His aborted documentary serves as a cautionary tale about the cost of commodifying murder – and a reminder that some mysteries are best left unsolved.
