Scene Discussionis a bi-weekly feature that breaks down specific scenes from movies or television shows. Sometimes in depth, sometimes not so much. Today the movie up for discussion is David Fincher’s Zodiac.

Zodiac is a different sort of movie. Audiences who went in expecting a crazy thriller serial killer movie probably weren’t pleased by the movie’s second act. Zodiac is a movie about obsession with justice and how justice is even defined. Throughout, there are only a hand full of on-screen murders and Zodiac-perspective narratives. The scene I’ve chosen is one of those.

From the beginning of this scene, it’s pretty obvious that something absolutely horrible is about to occur. The Zodiac Killer tricks this poor woman into repairing her car late at night on a highway. Being that the Zodiac Killer is, well, you know, a killer, the part where the baby is introduced into the scene just makes things a lot more complicated to come. The suspension in this scene is so heavy that it’s almost overwhelming on first or second viewing. Zodiac’s “I didn’t know you had a baby” line leads on that Mr. Zodiac himself just decides his victims on whim, and we might be seeing something happen that’s improvised.

In the last Scene Discussion, I talked about music in The Social Network’s club scene. In this scene, it’s the exact opposite. There is no score going on in this entire thing, which allows the viewer to make their own assumptions on what is happening and what is going to happen. A lot of people argue that horror movies aren’t scary anymore because one can just predict when the music is going to screech. Usually when that screeching happens, a spooky skeleton pops out of the closet and everyone jumps out of their seats. I would argue that this scene is scarier than all of those spooky skeleton scenes specifically because there is dead silence and we all know what is about to happen once Zodiac decides to pull up. And let’s not forget about that chilling last line that is the actual terrifying part.

But you know what’s actually really terrifying? That we all have a spooky skeleton inside of our bodies. Food for thought.