Kill List
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Michael Smiley, MyAnna Buring, Neil Maskell
Details: UK / 95mins (18).
Jay (Maskell) and Shel (Buring) are a married couple struggling through the recession. Jay, an Iraq War veteran hasn't worked in eight months and financial troubles are beginning to tear the family apart. Enter Jay's buddy Gal (Smiley – most memorable as Spaced's Tyres) who wants Jay to join him on his latest 'job': turns out Jay and Gal are hired killers and are given a 'kill list' by an anonymous businessman. However, as the two friends make their way down the list, strange things keep cropping up. At every hit, the victim takes Jay's bullet gladly and even whispers 'thank you.' Has it to with Gal's new girlfriend (Fryer) scrawling a pagan symbol on the back of Jay's bathroom mirror? Could be, but there's other weird stuff going on too…
Sounds intriguing, right? And it is… for the most part. It's getting harder and harder to come up with something fresh for a hitman movie. Grosse Point Blank injected comedy, The Magician was a mockumentary, and You Kill Me was delightfully oddball. Kill List finds its own niche: a hitman movie with touches of a domestic drama, the supernatural and horror. Director Ben Wheatley, who also wrote the script, manages to juggle all the elements without diluting any; opening with an awkward blazing argument between Jay and Shel, the director manages to keep that tension throughout.
It's not often you see a film rated 18s but Kill List's violence deserves it. One particular scene sees Jay dispense with his gun and take a hammer to one victim's hands, knees and head. It's gruesome stuff to say the least and the special effects here are realistic. The performances can't be faulted either: Jay and Shel look and sound like a married couple on the brink of separation and Jay and Gal make believable best buds. Everything was working so brilliantly. So what happened?
The trouble is this review can't get into why and how the movie dips so suddenly in the run-in for spoiler reasons. Suffice to say, it was a terrible decision by Wheatley to go down this road – this plot twist should have been on Jay and Gal's kill list too. What a disappointment.
Review by Gavin Burke
Your Comments
FilmBuff76
In recent years, British horror has featured a new sub-genre: hoodie horror like Eden Lake. Now another sub-genre could be added with Kill List: hitman horror. Kill List is a well directed and acted thriller with sudden bursts of violence that are more disturbing than gratuitous. There's a pervading sense of menace throughout the film, which takes a sharp turn to the left in the third act... This is where the film has the most impact and leaves a lasting memory. It's definitely one of the more intriguing horror films out this year. Recommended.
Posted 31/08/2011 21:27:42
CherrySueDointhedo
From the outset my stomach was gripped, never truly understanding why but I'm blaming the cinematography & score. Time lapse, overlaying scenes and music that seemed to jar with what was on screen at all times each served to jangle the nerves. Part of its brilliance was, genuinely, not knowing what was going to happen next. You're brought from terror to laughter within seconds. Disconcertion at its best. The relationship between the two hit men was brilliantly scripted and beautifully played out. The dialogue so sharp and at times jaw achingly funny married with constant pace changes meant that it almost seemed voyeuristic watching their story play out. As if we were privy to conversations that have actually happened, that the camera had caught snippets of their reality. It was an enormous feat for Ben Wheatley to make you feel for these men having seen the outrageously graphic violence that they perpetrate. I caught one glimpse & covered my eyes but there was no cutaway – my Bro watched every scene and all I could hear from behind my hand was a whispered expletive with many, many vowels. As the film thunders toward its conclusion there is no let up either visually or audibly. Anybody that tells you they knew the ending from the outset is a filthy liar. Anybody that reveals anything of the plot or conclusion is no friend of yours & should be ignored henceforth. Kill List is the most original film I have ever seen, there are no comparisons and that, to me, is praise enough to get you to see this film. Having seen the extended trailer at Movie Fest I was intrigued, once the final credits rolled even more so. This one will stay with me for quite some time.
Posted 01/09/2011 19:40:29
noel
oh dear oh dear what a let down, great start truly awful ending, no matter how good the start is that ending.... for the start its a 3 star movie but that ending makes it a one star.
Posted 07/09/2011 15:08:28
Tom
Have to disagree about the ending, I thought it was brilliantly bizarre and added superbly to the films many WTF moments. This was easily one of the best films of the year and a definite cult classic. Haven't been this un-nerved in a cinema since a certain Mr Lynch hung up his megaphone.
Posted 13/09/2011 18:07:15
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