True crime and David Fincher fans, one of the scariest movies ever made is officially returning to Netflix on November 17, 2025 in the United States, just in time for Thanksgiving (scoff all you want, but if you’re surrounded by a bunch of dads and uncles who don’t love football for some reason, throw this on and they’ll be entertained for a good two hours). Or disturbed.
But, if you can’t wait until its Netflix return, David Fincher’s classic Zodiac is currently available to stream on Paramount+, fuboTV, and for free (with a library card) on Kanopy. You can also rent or purchase it digitally on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Released in 2007, Zodiac wasn’t exactly a box office hit, but over the years it’s become one of the most revered true crime thrillers of the 21st century—and arguably one of Fincher’s best works. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo, the film follows the years-long hunt for the Zodiac Killer who terrorized California in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Watch the trailer below:
There’s no other way to say this: for a true crime thriller with such a stacked cast, Zodiac is really, really scary. If you log onto Letterboxd right now, you’ll find post after post from users citing the basement scene as the film’s most unnerving moment, and they’re not wrong. But for me, nothing compares to the Lake Berryessa scene.
For those who don’t know much about the Zodiac Killer’s crimes (or don’t go on Wikipedia deep dives for fun, don’t judge me), let me give you a summary of the Lake Berryessa incident: on September 27, 1969, Bryan Hartnell and Cecilia Shepard, a couple in their early twenties, were spending time near the lake when a man in a medieval-style executioner’s hood attacked them. Hartnell survived, Shepard did not.
The attack is one of the most disturbing sequences ever filmed. It all happens in daylight, which makes even more upsetting. There’s no score, just the sound of the wind, the birds, and the screams. Although there’s very little gore, the violence is realistic and unrelenting. Most crucially, it doesn’t feel sensationalized, unlike some other true crime media, but I digress.
It’s impossible to say which one of Fincher’s films is the best. This is the man responsible for Se7en and Gone Girl, after all. But I will say that Zodiac is definitely somewhere in the top three.
Don’t believe me? Then take this as your sign to do a rewatch. And if you love Zodiac (or of you want to know how I’d rank the rest of Fincher’s filmography), let me know: @ashjenexi on Instagram and X.
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