Zodiac: Trailer Review

Zodiac has conventions of a thriller. Some of these conventions are obvious such as the fact this film is based on a true story so people are intrigued to know if they could apply the story line of this film into their own lives. Also it is set in a modern city as we see from the establishing shot of opening clip of the trailer and is close to the reality of today so the audience are more likely to feel as if they can relate to the characters in this film. Another key convention of this trailer is that the setting is quite dark and gloomy looking which has connotations of evil and makes the audience feel weary as if they already know something bad is going to happen. A sense of investigation also helps to identify this film as a thriller as in many thrillers there is an ongoing investigation of some sort, usually the antagonist is very closely linked to the investigation. Though sometimes the opposite is applied and the antagonist is rarely seen at all to build tension. These conventions all help build suspense.

In the beginning of the trailer the first thing that grabs the audiences attention is the murder of a woman. This convention is an enigma code as it raises questions like "who is the murderer?" or "why did she get shot?". Enigma codes are extremely common in thrillers as it helps build mystery and creates a firm base for twists in the story. To reinforce the mystery the audience is given a very limited view with close up and bird's eye view angles of a man in the shadows.

The character of Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) was presented as the protagonist as he is only a political cartoonist who has no connection to the case other than his predictable heroic skill of understanding the Zodiac code. This gives a sense of irony as detectives who have been working on the case for years turn to a mere cartoonist. Graysmith has a wife Melanie (Chloe Sevigny) this adds tho the thrill as the audience may want to see if she will fall victim to the Zodiac killer as a result of her husbands involvement with the case. From the trailer there appear to be two different antagonists, the first one being Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo). Toschi seems like as a possible antagonist as he is the most associated with the case so he ultimately has control on which direction the case goes in and who the suspects could be. He seems like a possible antagonist an in the trailer he is deflecting all evidence in the case as "circumstantial". The second potential antagonist is Bryan Hartnell (Patrick Scott Lewis) who we find out to be the murderer. But in the trailer the elements that make Hertnell a potential antagonist is that he is shown rarely and when he is on screen we have a limited viewing time or just a limited view which could symbolically represent that there is something to hide.