ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT: When You Don't Get Your Way, Make A Movie Anyway

ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT (Blu-ray)

2025 / 92 min

Music Box Films

Review by Princess Pepper😾

Just a heads-up…this is not another documentary about the notorious serial killer. It’s about a director who didn’t get his chance to make one.

Charlie Shackleton’s biggest claim to fame is a film called Paint Drying. He made it in response to the British Board of Film Classification’s requirement that all films must be screened by the board before being released (which Shackleton believes is tantamount to censorship). This means he forced the board to sit through a 10-hour film that is literally a single shot of a white-painted brick wall.

As a joke, that’s pretty damned funny.

I learned all this from a few of the bonus features that are included with his latest effort, Zodiac Killer Project, which are far more interesting (and entertaining) than the movie itself. Essentially a documentary about a documentary he never got to make, I get the impression this one is also intended as a joke. If so, it’s a really long-winded one with no punchline, though some viewers might appreciate the meta aspects of the film.

Well...at least there's no CGI.

 At one time, Shackleton was close to securing the rights to adapt The Silenced Badge, a book about a cop’s independent investigation to reveal the Zodiac Killer’s identity, into a documentary film. The director was well into the planning stages when the rights were unexpectedly ranked away from him. Undeterred, Shackleton decided to make a documentary about what his film would have been.

The bulk of the movie consists of the places he would have shot, the spots where he’d have inserted dramatic reenactments and, of course, his initial dismay over losing the rights to the book in the first place. Shackleton himself narrates, mostly off-screen, and he goes into a lot of detail over how each scene would’ve looked. He also displays a little smugness, especially when discussing overused tropes in other true crime documentaries (which is admittedly spot-on).

Ultimately though, Zodiac Killer Project comes across as sort of a f**k you to those who kept a guy from doing the film he wanted to make. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I don’t think he needed 90 minutes for a joke that could’ve been succinctly told in 20. Shackleton at-least deserves an attaboy for salvaging what he could from the debacle, but his efforts are marginally more interesting than watching paint dry.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Charlie Shackleton Q&A Session from Chicago Premiere; Rejected Sundance Meet the Artist Video; Camera Test Short Film; Charlie Shackleton on Paint Drying. 

FULL EVOCATIVE B-ROLL REEL

DIRECTOR UNCOMMENTARY TRACK - Same film, without any narration. Essentially a gag feature.

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SECRET MALL APARTMENT: Yes, This Really Happened

SECRET MALL APARTMENT (Blu-ray)

2025 / 92 min

Music Box Films

Review by Princess Pepper😺

In 2003, a few years after the massive new Rhode Island mall, Providence Place, was opened, local artist & teacher Michael Townsend and seven fellow artists moved in…literally. Apparently finding an unaccounted-for space in the original blueprints, they decided to turn it into an apartment, partly as an art project, partly as a form of protest of what the mall represents.

They stayed there undetected for four years - sneaking in and out at will - before finally getting caught. In the interim, Townsend and friends managed to fully furnish the place, and even built an additional cinderblock wall to conceal it. If this was a work of fiction, we’d balk at its implausibility. However, Secret Mall Apartment is a documentary, about half of which consists of footage these guys shot themselves while moving in and living there.

When focusing on how these eight people managed to pull off such a stunt, the movie is pretty fascinating, especially their efforts to move massive pieces of furniture into the “apartment” (which is located on one of the upper levels!). Then there’s the 70+ cinderblocks they manage to get up there for the wall, which turns out to be a tremendous undertaking. And since this is one of the few times they come closes to getting caught, those scenes even generate a little suspense. But to be honest, I was really hoping to see more of their stealthy living arrangements. After all, who hasn’t fantasized about having the run of a zombie-free mall? 

"...and I still had to pay a pet deposit."

Secret Mall Apartment is just-as-much about Townsend himself, who’s something of an avant garde artist and an obvious inspiration to those around him. Additionally, the film delves into how the mall represents the worst aspects of capitalism, especially since its construction not-only displaced many people and small businesses, it paved the way for gentrification of the neighborhood. Those are themes worth exploring, of course, but from an entertainment perspective, not nearly as enjoyable as watching these folks setting up house and getting away with it. 

The film also features interviews with everyone involved, which is interspersed with the footage they shot, as well as an amusing reenactment of the moment Michael is finally caught. Whether the whole thing is indeed supposed to be an art project, a social statement or just an elaborate stunt, Secret Mall Apartment is worth checking out just to see how they managed to pull-off something you wouldn’t think is possible.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - The Mall and the Movie is about about the film playing at Providence Place; Jesse Eisenberg Reads Letterboxed Reviews (Eisenberg is the film’s executive producer); On the Marquee Photo Montage features several North American theaters that screened the film; Jesse Eisenberg & Michael Townsend in Conversation; Recreation Set Timelapse shows the secret apartment set being built (obviously for the re-enactment scenes); Michael Townsend Tape Art further showcase’s the artist’s work.

Q&A SESSIONS - 1) With Jesse Eisenberg; 2) With director Jeremy Workman.

DELETED SCENES

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