Zodiac Essay Sam Lewsey

Zodiac follows conventions of the thriller genre in many ways, throughout this essay I’m going to outline all the ways in which Zodiac follows conventions.

Firstly we have the protagonist, this is conventional as most thrillers have a main protagonist who wants to fight the evil of the antagonist. On the other hand the protagonist is unconventional as he isn’t meant to be a protagonist, the police are investigating a case and he overhears whilst drawing a cartoon for the newspaper. He is also unconventional as protagonists are usually portrayed as being big, strong men that are cut out for taking on antagonists, whereas this protagonist is the complete opposite. The protagonist is represented as being a typical ‘nerd’, he draws cartoons, ‘like’s puzzles’ and is a ‘first class eagle scout’, these are verbal codes which indicate that he is a nerdy character.

Secondly we have the antagonist, Zodiac. Zodiac is a conventional thriller antagonist, he is a murderer and he keeps his identity hidden, this is the first enigma code. This forces the audience to ask questions, ‘who is zodiac?’ and ‘why is he killing people?’ creating intrigue. Whereas he could also be seen as unconventional, most killers don’t want to be caught, yet zodiac sends letters to the police, this may suggest he has quite an arrogant character type. These letters that Zodiac keeps sending are more enigma codes as the audience are intrigued and want to know what they mean. Zodiac is represented as a psychological manipulator, he doesn’t use strength to do what he does he uses knowledge, outwitting the investigators.

The setting is conventional for the thriller genre, the trailer starts of in darkness in the middle of no where, this creates an eerie atmosphere, gripping the audience. The sound in the background is a verbal code which aids this eerie atmosphere effect. The sound is also building suspense as it goes along, all the strange noises make the audience feel like they’re there in this dark, unknown area. Zodiac pulls out a gun and we have a close up of the gun in their hand, this is a visual code that is used to strike fear into the audience. The realism of the setting could also bring fear to the audience, as the trailer goes on we realise he’s killing people in San Francisco, this brings fear because we live in a busy city so its realistic.