Customer Reviews

Curse of the Zodiac

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(14)

 

 

In a word (well, two, actually): it sucks! That being said, "Curse of the Zodiac" was marginally better than Lommel's previous flick about the Zodiac Killer. This atrocity was apparently set in 1978, and dealt with the Zodiac Killer taunting some writer for reasons unknown. He is still killing, but unlike the real Zodiac Killer, Lommel's version stalked only women and killed them by putting his gun in their mouths and pulling the trigger; it is a matter of fact that the real Zodiac Killer never did anything remotely like that. It's also a matter of fact that 4 of the Zodiac's 7 known victims were actually male, and he was never known to stalk and kill lone women, but then, facts don't seem to be anything that Lommel cares about.

The Zodiac harasses some writer a lot with phone calls, and cusses quite a bit (as mentioned in previous reviews); if all of his cussing were edited out, half the movie would be gone. It's apparent that Lommel has no talent for writing (or directing, for that matter, since he doesn't appear to have invested in anything other than his camcorder that he doesn't know how to use very well), since he couldn't think of anything else for the Zodiac to say. This flick itself was pretty pointless, it didn't seem to have any direction at all and I wondered the whole time where it was going. After it was over, I wondered why I even sat through it (I actually fell asleep two or three times, and the parts I missed made no difference at the end). I will say this, however: the heroine, played by Cassandra Church, is pretty cute, and it does look like she was making an effort unlike most of the others, who gave the impression they were making up the dialogue off the tops of their heads (and, if that's the case... what dialogue did Lommel actually write???).

The heroine had a psychic connection to the Zodiac, and he was also psychically aware of her. At the end, it's implied that the Zodiac killed her psychically... and then, I remembered where I saw this movie once before: "Fear," a TV movie that came out in July 1990, starring Ally Sheedy and Lauren Hutton. Ally Sheedy was a psychic who connected with a serial killer, who in turn was aware of her and played mind games with her. At the end, however, he was the one who was killed, not the psychic... and it looks like poor old Ulli couldn't think of a better plot and so ripped off an old idea and hoped no one would notice.

This gets one star only because there are no zero star ratings. Give it a miss, unless you want to see the cute Cassandra Church...

This movie proves if you have an old raggedy bulky camcorder, a mixer, some keyboards, special effects, and some sorry excuses for actors/actresses that you can make a stupid crappy homemade horror film! The self-proclaimed Zodiac keeps calling the police station and antagonizing the cop and calling him "Fat f*ck" after everything he says. To keep a long story short, take my word and save your time, money, and your eyesight. Do us all a favor and discontinue this one! If you want to see a real film about the Zodiac, watch either "Zodiac" or "The Zodiac". At least in those 2 films they cover events as they happened in real life.

I totally agree! This movie was garbage! One horrible detail is the fact that a lot of the scenes are shown at a 90 degree angle. The ground or floor is over on the right side of the screen. It is like a stupid camera man turned the camcorder to a verticle angle while recording, then when they were editing the film and saw that the image was on it's side, they just said "So what? It will be fine that way." It definitely does look like some 9th graders made it for a high school project - and did a horrible job. The acting is so fake and stupid. The plot is also very very very boring. This is seriously the worst movie I have ever seen! They also say the F word a lot more than any other movie. The killer says "...you fat F***" or similar things hundreds of times. One last point, the gore... when the Zodiac kills a person, they always show a disgusting view of the dead body with a lot of blood. They show things like the person's brains blown out onto the pavement next to her head or the killer sticks his fingers in the bullet holes in the persons head and plays with it! Gross!

Ulli Lommel's string of serial killer movies started off promising with "Zodiac Killer", then went quickly downhill with "Green River Killer" and "BTK Killer". "Curse of the Zodiac" is just as bad as "BTK Killer". There's not really any plot, just a series of murders and 70 minutes of extremely tedious filler scenes. With "Zodiac Killer", which had a decent story, I could overlook the obvious low budget, but this movie has no redeeming features, and what's with all the strange camera angels and the bad editing? Don't waste your time or money on this movie.

Ulli Lommel must be stopped. I don't care what he might have done in the 1960s; the man is, quite simply, the worst filmmaker on the face of the Earth. Lommel isn't a director - he's a serial rapist of cinema. Look no further than his string of painfully bad serial killer films, featuring the likes of Black Dahlia, Green River Killer, and BTK Killer. Curse of the Zodiac, though, really takes the cake. I don't know what you call the polar opposite of a masterpiece, but that's what this film is. Maybe you're thinking a movie about the Zodiac's bloody legacy can't possibly be mind-numbingly boring - and you would be correct. Unfortunately, this movie isn't about the real Zodiac killer at all. You see, the mere facts of any real serial killer case just aren't good enough for Lommel - oh, no. Never mind the fact that the Zodiac killer held the San Francisco Bay area a virtual hostage for years with his chilling murders and cryptic communications. Lommel just makes up a bunch of nonsense, deluges the whole thing with artsy fartsy crap and hopelessly amateurish cinematography gimmicks, and probably believes he's giving us amazing insight into the mind of a killer. He makes what is arguably the most sinister killer since Jack the Ripper look like a two-bit thug. Honestly, if I were the Zodiac killer (and I'm not, by the way), I would seriously consider turning myself in to the authorities just so I could sue this pitiful excuse of a filmmaker for liable.

In Lommel's peculiar little world, the Zodiac killer was a Skinhead who never changed his clothes, wore a man-purse on his hip, went around shooting people in the mouth without any bystander ever hearing a shot, performed constantly repetitive, vulgar voiceovers, and established a psychic connection with a young waif who could easily have served as Olive Oyl's body double. Yes, poor little Natasha Baines (Cassandra Church) has a vision of each of the murders as it happens, forcing her to hold her head, cry, and stumble around a lot. The killer, for his part, spends most of his free time harassing some so-called writer (Jon E. Nimetz, possibly the worst actor I've ever seen) with profanity-laced phone calls announcing each of his imminent murders. After a chance meeting, Natasha and the writer come together to try and crack the case themselves, but by this point the Zodiac killer has picked up on his psychic connection with Emo girl and starts psychically taunting and terrorizing her. In between murders, Lommel attempts to dazzle the audience with amateurish collages of random images.

The cinematography is almost as bad as the miserable excuse of a plot. Lommel obviously doesn't believe in ever letting the camera stand still, so you're constantly zooming in and out at weird angles. After a while, the cameraman apparently discovers there are buttons and settings on the camera that let him capture the images in all sorts of ways - and begins cycling through all of them whenever he darn well feels like it (the old mirror image switch is apparently his favorite, however, as he uses this almost constantly in the latter half of the film). Unfortunately, the poor cameraman apparently develops a sudden case of Parkinson's disease and can't hold the camera steady to save his life toward the end.

If I were Ulli Lommel, I would be in fear for my life. If the real Zodiac killer is still out there somewhere, he may well come knocking on Lommel's door one night.

When I first seen this movie on the shelf at the local Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video I was thinking Zodiac movie that might help piece together the mystery of the serial killer. After watching this I was like, 'what the hell was that all about? that's not the Zodiac it's some gimmick pretending to cash in on a big thing from the 60s & 70s'. I don't know how this movie even got greenlighted, cause the Zodiac seemed to be like a juvenile teenager and not a man like portrayed in documentaries or other movies based on the Zodiac Killer. I give this movie 1 star out of 5.

You would have to pay me to watch this movie again. I could only handle about 15 minutes, 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

I enjoyed reading the book Zodiac and the Hollywood film. This film was three bucks used and i've seen it at a store for the longest time that I eventually picked it up. I knew it wouldn't be too great but didnt expect anything this bad. The seizure inducing camera angles that start off the first five minutes of the film and it continues it thru out. The voice over was beyond horrible; All he did was swear and it kept on looping like it was suppose to be a song. I took this film out before I could finish this movie and it's only an hour and twenty minutes. Stupid, cheap,not worth a peak, and better served as a coaster. Avoid this movie and pick up a book instead.

I rented this movie thinking it couldn't be that bad since they usually don't carry low budget films here.... surprise! It was probably the worst movie I've seen....and surely the most frustrating to watch... really! The camera angles, unfocused shots, bad acting and the editing... wow! Don't buy it, don't rent it, forget you ever came across this film because it blows!

Curse of the Zodiac is a second film by Ulli Lommel that is inspired by the mysterious serial killer The Zodiac. In this shot-on-Digital-Video flick, a mysterious killer who calls himself "The Zodiac" and "The Z-Man" taunts a fat lazy cop by sending him letters and annoying phone calls. A young woman (Cassandra Church) witnesses his killings through her dreams. She tries to tell people about her :"visions", but nobody seems to care, Her boyfriend asks if she needs to see a shrink. Can she warn the authorities about "The Zodiac" before he can strike again?

I found the movie to be okay. Not as good as The Zodiac Killer. A young actress named Cassandra Church puts on a very good performance. Ulli Lommel does his best to make an interesting film and uses a lot of flashy cuts and edits to add some zazz to the picture. Not a classic by any means but a strange and dark film by filmmaker Ulli Lommel.