15 Films To Watch If You Like Zodiac

David Fincher’s 2007 thriller, Zodiac, is one of the finest examples of a true-crime story being used in a movie. It tells the events surrounding the Zodiac killings with accuracy, tension, and an all-star cast. Even if you know every detail of the real-life story, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by the search for the killer’s identity and the characters wrapped up in it.

Of course, as it’s a true story, you can’t exactly expect a sequel. The most anyone can hope for is a similar movie. So, we’ve put together a list of movies that have similarities to Zodiac, in the hope of guiding fans towards a selection of other thrilling stories that they’ll be interested in.

Updated on October 22nd, 2020 by Mark Birrell: Fans of David Fincher’s Zodiac only want the best of the best and that’s all we’ll be looking at with these similar movies. These thrillers and dramas showcase some of the finest work of some of the best directors to ever do it and will surely engage your brain like Fincher’s masterful crime movie does.

15 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

David Fincher has examined horror and murder from many different angles throughout his career as a filmmaker and one of his most often-undersung movies in that area would have to be his adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s popular novel of the same name.

Few filmmakers can unfurl a mystery plot as Fincher can and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a story that’s perfectly suited for all of the director’s darkest sensibilities.

14 Memories of Murder (2003)

Director Bong Joon-ho’s second feature film catapulted to him to fame amongst movie fans the world over with this story of South Korea’s first serial killer case and its haunting legacy.

Two detectives with very different approaches, one stuck in the country’s past and the other looking to its future, take on the case but fact and fiction get glued together in the heat of the all-consuming mystery.

13 Spotlight (2015)

Tom McCarthy’s Oscar-winning drama about the titular investigative journalist team and their exposé on the coverup of child abuse cases in the Catholic church took home various awards thanks to its flawless ensemble. It earned Zodiac‘s Dave Toschi, actor Mark Ruffalo, his third nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, taking home Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

Spotlight is true to life in the most affecting way possible, using the power of its performances to paint portraits of very real, and conflicted, human beings that will meet the discerning standards of any Zodiac fan.

12 The Boston Strangler (1968)

This dramatization of the case of the titular real-life serial killer and their capture strikes a similar balance to Zodiac with its use of everyday detail and striking cinematic style.

The fact that the case actually convicted a suspect allows for a far more in-depth look into the mind of its killer and Tony Curtis’ performance as Albert DeSalvo has real staying power.

11 All the President’s Men (1976)

Few movies about real-life investigations can claim to be on a similar level to Alan J. Pakula’s iconic retelling of the Watergate scandal and its uncovering. But Zodiac is one of them and it quite clearly owes so much to its devoutly detailed drama.

Essentially every subsequent movie that features journalists and tries to depict them in an even semi-realistic way is, to some degree, copying All the President’s Men, and the rhythm of the San Francisco Chronicle traces more than a few steps from Pakula’s recreation of The Washington Post’s offices.

10 Se7en (1995)

David Fincher’s breakout movie forever tied the director’s name to the murder mystery genre and remains a firm favorite amongst fans for good reasons. The movie’s gruesome killer is unforgettably chilling while Morgan Freeman is perfectly balanced against a young Brad Pitt.

Aside from being fictional, the main difference between the two stories is that Se7en doesn’t skimp on the incredibly graphic depictions of its murders, so check it out if you want more of Zodiac‘s darkest moments.

9 Prisoners (2013)

Denis Villeneuve’s intense thriller sees Jake Gyllenhaal take on a very different role than that of the timid Robert Graysmith in Zodiac with his total transformation as a tough-as-nails cop trying to solve a child abduction case.

Hugh Jackman plays the father of one of the kidnapped children and delivers his own impressive performance as both men crack under the pressure of the labyrinthian mystery.

8 The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

One of the greatest serial killer movies ever, The Silence of the Lambs is so good that it is one of just three films to take home all of the top five Academy Awards.

The audience doesn’t get to see much of the Zodiac themselves in Fincher’s movie but The Silence of the Lambs spends a lot of time with the creepy Hannibal Lector and Anthony Hopkins makes him devilishly compelling.

7 The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network was the second of David Fincher’s explorations of true stories, bringing to life the story surrounding the creation of Facebook.

There’s no murder, but there’s the same meticulous approach to the retelling of real events. Watch if you’re a fan of Fincher’s realistic side.

6 American Psycho (2000)

While Zodiac’s take on murder is rather realistic, American Psycho is just about as far to the opposite end of the spectrum as you can get. Not only does it satirize the entire serial killer thriller genre in just about every scene, but the ending of the movie also adds further doubt to everything the audience sees.

The depiction of insanity and mind-games will certainly entertain a Zodiac fan and Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman is one of the greatest movie psychos of all time.

5 Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

About as close to Zodiac as you can get without telling the story of the Zodiac Killer is Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Instead of the Zodiac Killer, this movie looks at the murders committed by Ted Bundy, and Zack Efron delivers a great performance as the madman.

The main difference is that this movie basically removes the killings from the course of events and lets everything play out in court. Watch if you like the legal side of famous crimes.

4 Halloween (1978)

Zodiac is full of tense and chilling atmosphere throughout and there are few movies as full of dark murderous atmosphere as John Carpenter’s worthy successor to Hitchcock’s Psycho, the original Halloween.

If you’re looking for a crazed killer stalking his prey without the focus on the legal side of things, then this is the movie for you.

3 Goodfellas (1990)

Filmmaking maestro Martin Scorsese created a crime genre masterpiece and an almost flawless piece of cinema with Goodfellas. While the criminal underworld isn’t quite the same as serial killers in terms of true crime fiction, the psychos of this mafia world are just as bloodthirsty.

The movie tells the true story of Henry Hill’s life in the mob with poise and accuracy, while never diluting the shocking–and often brutal–criminality.

2 The Irishman (2019)

Scorsese made a return to the true-crime genre several times after Goodfellas, and twice with stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in the lead roles, but his most recent is possibly the most sprawling.

The Irishman chronicles the criminal career of Frank Sheeran, who claimed to have been at the center of several very high-profile killings in American post-war history and the master director’s unwavering eye for detail will not go unnoticed by a Zodiac fan.

1 Shutter Island (2010)

A large degree of Martin Scorsese’s modern mystery masterpiece, Shutter Island, is built around another mind-bending case and also stars Mark Ruffalo as one of the investigators, but its examination of the psychology of a killer is a lot more emotionally intimate.

Make sure to watch if you’re a fan of movies with game-changing twists in their plots that make you want to go back and see it again straight away.