That F@%*ing Scene : The Lake Berryessa Murders

Today, I’m trying something slightly different.

I’ve been reviewing films on this site for ten years or so. While it’s a gratifying process, it’s also quite straightforward: you highlight the high points/low points and tell your audience if or why a movie is worth their time. It has an effect on whether or not you’ll watch the movie, but it doesn’t explain if or why you’ll keep strong memories of it.

A memorable film has powerful moments. You’re never (or rarely) in a state of complete, transcendent bliss for 90 to 120 minutes, but certain scenes can elevate a film and make it immortal. Today, I want to break down one of these scenes that I’ve never been able to forget. A scene that defined David Fincher’s Zodiac and anchored it in a terrifying reality to me: the Lake Berryessa Murders.

Be warned: it is extremely violent.

Why is the Lake Berryessa murders scene so terrifying?

I highlighted three reasons.

1) Lack of stereotypical artifice. In movies, murder scenes come with a certain set of artifice that unconsciously prepares you for what’s about to happen: poor lighting, frantic editing, music, etc. The Lake Berryessa Murders scene is devoid of all that. It’s filmed in broad daylight, in a very naturalistic way. Editing is kept at a functional level. David Fincher doesn’t try to hide that you’re watching a movie scene, but doesn’t artificially ratchet tension either.

The lack of music is also disturbing, because you can hear the conventionally pleasant sounds of nature blend with the tragedy of the scene. Not only the bareness of Fincher’s aesthetic subdue your expectations, but they also deny you an psychological refuge from what you’re witnessing. The more your scene subscribe to a genre’s convention, they more you can associate it to other movies and distance yourself from it. This is (by design) impossible here.

2) The characters don’t die on screen. I believe this is the main reason why this scene is so memorable. In movies, death is mostly represented like a graceful, almost immediate fade out. Movies (even horror movies) have somewhat of a reverence of death. It’s quick and doesn’t often involved periods of prolonged agony. It is unfortunately not realistic. Death can be a painful, hopeless, hours long process that involves the victim understanding exactly what’s happening.

This is exactly what’s happening in the Lake Berryessa murders scene. The characters scream and writhe from pain while they’re getting stabbed and aren’t even given the relief of death. When the scene cuts, we have no idea how long they’ve been subjected to this atrocious violence. I’m not the most educated horror film guy, but I don’t remember seeing a movie death depicted with such emotional brutality. You know it is inevitable, but you’re never offered the relief of it.

3) It happened for real. Duh. Anyone who consciously decides to watch Zodiac understands that. But the reality of the Lake Berryessa murders permeates the scene beyond simple facts. The characters do not behave like movie characters. They don’t run away or confront the Zodiac Killer in any way. They simply comply with his orders, allowing themselves to be tied up and vulnerable to his darkest desires. They react like anyone normal would in this situation.

Because of that, we’re put into the uncomfortable position of witnessing a reenactment of something terrible that really happened. That’s one thing David Fincher understands, but that eludes so many filmmakers: being a powerless witness is more emotionally impactful that being put in the victim’s shoes. Cinema is a very powerful medium, but it has its limitations and it can only clumsily interpret subjective experience. But it can show you what happened.