A decade after tackling the curious case of a notorious real-life serial killer inZodiac, David Fincher tackled a whole host of them in his Netflix seriesMindhunter. Fincher has been fascinated with mass murder since the beginning of his career. Afterhis bad experience onAlien 3, the first movie where he had some creative control wasSe7en.
But where John Doe was a fictional serial killer who got caught, the Zodiac was a real serial killer who was never caught, which is much more chilling. Although it was unappreciated in its time,Zodiacis now remembered as one ofFincher’s best movies.Mindhunteris Fincher’s spiritual successor toZodiac, and it’s an even more disturbing true-crime saga.
David Fincher’s Mindhunter Was Released 10 Years After Zodiac
Mindhunter Goes Back To The Early Days Of Profiling Serial Killers
In 2017,Fincher executive-producedMindhunterand shepherded it to the screen. The series was created by Joe Penhall and adapted from John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s 1995 true-crime bookMindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit.Fincher was the series’ primary director, helming more episodes than anyone else, and, for all intents and purposes, its showrunner.
Mindhunteris available to stream in its entirety on Netflix.
Mindhunterstars Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv as a trio of FBI agents who team up to form the Behavioral Science Unit in the late 1970s.As they investigate early cases of serial killers, they pioneer the tenets of criminal profilingand start to notice significant patterns in their behavior. They essentially coin the term “serial killer.”
The series doesn’t just examine some of the most infamous serial killers of the 20th century;it also examines the psychological impact of studying these disturbed minds as a nine-to-five vocation. Groff’s character starts suffering from panic attacks, Torv’s character struggles to function in normal human relationships, and McCallany’s character’s son is impacted by his grisly work.
Mindhunter Was A Spiritual Successor To David Fincher’s Crime Thrillers
It Chronicles The History That Led To Stories Like Zodiac & Se7en
Making a show likeMindhunterwas the natural next step for Fincher after exploring the psychology of serial killers inSe7enand focusing on one specific real-life serial killer inZodiac. Unfortunately,Netflix canceledMindhunterafter just two seasons, so its potential was cut short. But in its current form,it’s practically perfect, without a single weak episode.
Zodiac does a great job of rounding out its characters through the lens of their investigation into the killings, but Mindhunter had a lot longer to really dig into the psychological effects of obsessing over serial killers.
Zodiacdoes a great job of rounding out its characters through the lens of their investigation into the killings, but Mindhunter had a lot longer to really dig into the psychological effects of obsessing over serial killers. It also explores a much wider range of killers, from Charles Manson to Son of Sam.Mindhunteralmost feels like aZodiacsequel.
