if you LOVED this movie, you should see...

This may seem like a strange choice, but I highly recommend the film Cruising for a similar feeling, as well as a psychological portrait of the way a series of unsolved murders slowly change the detective investigating them. It's late 70s Manhattan (even if it was released in 1980), but has a similar dark, period feel, a shifting kaleidoscope of suspects, as well as mounting, unresolved tension and mystery. Two of the few films that have truly given me the creeps. And it takes a LOT to do so, unfortunately.

I was reminded of Cruising just now when I was reading this description of Zodiac on the WordPress blog Weminoredinfilm.com:

It’s a film about the spellbinding, haunting aspects of an unsolved crime, but is not about the crime itself. It’s a film about characters who venture down a rabbit hole, chasing an elusive monster in the dark, and the tolls such a pursuit takes. For a film about obsession, it’s as much a film about what happens to the obsessed when their drives go unsatisfied.

I would apply this same description to Cruising without changing a word.

There is also this Korean film called Mother directed by the same directors of Memories of Murder. It's almost equally as good as Memories of Murder and it certainly has that crime thriller-mystery vibe.

Prisoners http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392214/

The Avengers

Apologies if it's been named above but (with an outstanding Stephen Rea) is a similar and earlier film about a (real) Russian serial killing. I preferred it to Zodiac and bizarrely it never got a cinema release despite actors like Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112681/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_74

Didn't go through all the posts to see if anyone mentioned it, but Memories of Murder is one that comes to mind. It's a Korean film which I thought was similar to Zodiac.

"You're close, but the sky's closer"

As others have mentioned, I think tonally and structurally, the closest movie to Zodiac is All the President's Men.

By the way, Mr Wenders, I loved Wings of Desire.




Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

I'd suggest some more films about real murders such as the great '10 Rillington Place' and 'The Black Pantha'.

For fictional crimes (but with a real-life crime int he background) I'd suggest the three part series 'Red Riding'.

If you liked this you may also like classic films noir such as 'The Maltese Falcon', 'Double Indemnity', 'DOA' or 'The Blue Dahlia' to name a few.