Well, that was 4 hours and $5.97 in rentals wasted. It was very entertaining until the last ten minutes and then all I could think is there were so many things I could have been watching instead. I felt betrayed. It's just a hoax on the part of the film makers. They make you and their subject believe for the first 3 hours and 50 minutes that this is all true, that the case is solved. It's not. It's all bologna. The only reason I can see this got made was because the filmmakers didn't figure it out until the end, because Gary's story is so convincing, and that they had to salvage their show. This could have been a 1-hour documentary about what's real. Instead, the filmmakers wasted the audience time by duping them.
Gary, the son has more integrity than the filmmakers because he honestly believed he's the son of the Zodiak Killer. And you just feel bad for him and his co-author by the end. I never got the sense Gary was trying to dupe anyone, he just got caught up in it, and it did seem enough like it was his dad that we were talking about it afterwards, thinking, "Maybe he really is?" And, who knows, maybe the family in Austria lied because they don't want to be attached to the Zodiak, but it would make sense of the time gap where Earl Van Best Jr disappears. In the end, they don't have enough evidence to prove he is, but they don't have enough to prove he isn't. The police have the DNA but won't say whether Earl Van Best Jr is or isn't the Zodiak. It would have been easy for them to say definitively, but the detective chose not to, which does seem suspicious. It could be that the cops don't want an amateur detective to figure out their case and so they're not saying anything and would rather let it die than come out with the truth. Who knows, but the way they wrap it up quickly after leading you down this rabbit hole for 3 hrs and 50 minutes that he did do it, then in the last 10 minutes to be like, oh, by the way, he didn't, it's impossible...all I gotta say are the filmmakers are real tools.
I think the filmmakers felt it made them look like super sleuths, but it just made them look like jerks behind the camera who are screwing over Gary and his co-author. 'Cause it's never clear if they know all along that the Zodiak is or isn't his dad. So they could have been doubtful and completely screwing them for money and to advance their careers, or, still completely screwing them, but not knowing until the end. Either way, it makes the filmmakers look like opportunist parasitic jerks, and not the other way around. The only reason I'm not giving it a 1 star is because it was entertaining and engrossing...but it was all meaningless. It was a con. A con on the audience by the filmmakers who clearly have no integrity. They could have treated everyone involved with respect by not putting this out since they have no story, or telling the truth in a 1-hour documentary. I'm sure the filmmakers feel real pleased with themselves, but this is exactly why so few people believe the news or documentaries anymore 'cause, not only are they usually one-sided, sometimes they're complete lies, like this was.
