Q. How does the ‘Serial Killer’ subgenre change when applied to different cultural contexts, shown with ‘Zodiac‘ (David Fincher, 2007) and ‘Memories of Murder‘ (Bong Joon-ho, 2003)? 

David Fincher’s 2007 film, Zodiac, and Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 film, Memories of Murder, are both distinctive thriller films based around true crimes. These films have been chosen as they were made in contrasting cultures, so the similarities and differences in approaches to the genre can be clearly seen. It could be argued that Zodiac was influenced by Memories of Murder, since the releases of each film were only four years apart and there are many similar aspects that can be seen in both. Fincher’s film follows Robert Graysmith, Dave Toschi, and Paul Avery in their hunt for the Zodiac, a serial killer who, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in America. Memories of Murder also features a serial killer hunt, but with a diverse cultural setting, as detectives Park Doo-man, Seo Tae-yoon, and Cho Yong-koo attempt to solve the case of the deaths in the Gyunggi Province in South Korea.