Director David Fincher's "Zodiac" is a mind-bending methodical thriller following in the footsteps of his most famous works to date, "Se7en" and "Fight Club."

In Fincher's detailed and mesmerizing style, the film delves into the murders by the so-named serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s and early 1970s, then faded into history, his real name yet unknown.

The true mystery of the Zodiac's identity is at the core of Fincher's picture. What starts as a manhunt with roots in the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Chronicle turns into a self-destructive obsession for many of the key players involved. Even as the case turns cold after years of investigation, such characters as Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo, "Just Like Heaven") and Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain") are still searching dusty police files and anonymous leads for answers.

While Toschi and Graysmith sacrifice their peace of mind and family respectively for the case, another takes an even more dramatic downfall. Top-notch Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr., "A Scanner Darkly") turns to booze and coke after receiving a personal threat on his life from the Zodiac. Avery's transformation from slick reporter to paranoid junkie is only a sliver of the darkly captivating script, which Fincher projects onto the screen.

The film opens with the killer approaching a parked car on a lovers' lane, and without hesitation, he opens fire on the teenage couple inside. The killer later calls in the crime to the police, and before disconnecting takes pride and declares that he did it. This only brushes the surface on the Zodiac's psychopathic nature.

Weeks later, a typed letter arrives at the offices of three leading newspapers in the Bay area, threatening to kill again. The Chronicle and others continued receiving correspondence from the Zodiac through the end of the 1970s. The letters are a mix of misspelled words and ciphers, all signed with his signature mark resembling a rifle sight.

"Zodiac" never strays from the facts of the case, with each scene playing like a police blotter. The edits are surgically crafted and, coupled with the chilling reality of the crimes, create images that will stay with audiences well after the credits have rolled. Most unnerving is the stabbing of a young couple by a lake in Napa in broad daylight.

But the grisly depictions of murder aren't the only scenes that will linger in the minds of audience members. The performances are superb, showing each actor at the top of his or her game. Downey's confident, disconnected swagger is contrasted perfectly with Gyllenhaal's unmasked curiosity toward the Zodiac and his altogether awkward persona. Add Anthony Edwards as Toschi's low-key partner, Brian Cox as celebrity attorney Melvin Belli, a weary Chlo?