Watch enough true-crime documentaries and patterns begin to emerge—a situation that speaks to the genre’s embrace of a cookie-cutter formula defined by a host of recurring narrative and formal tropes.

All Charlie Shackleton had to do was give the Sundance Film Festival a 90-second video introducing himself and his documentary Zodiac Killer Project, which premiered at the festival on Monday. Instead,

Director Charlie Shackleton's meta project about the notorious serial killer challenges, with wry humor, our entire approach to true crime.

The Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton masterfully exposes the tricks and tropes of true crime. It just debuted at Sundance.

Charlie Shackleton’s quasi-true crime documentary 'Zodiac Killer Project' is a fascinating approach to form but a tepid experience overall.