Review of Kill List (2011) by Jesse O — 10 May 2013

This is quite the excellent horror film. You could say that the movie starts out "slow" but I think it does so in a very smart manner, because it knows how to build suspense and using atmosphere to enhance that suspense.

There's also some cryptic messages from some of the characters that lets you know that something strange is going to happen eventually. The ambient score with also helps a lot. This understated tension all ends up leading to a climax that, at first, feels like it comes out of left field but in the end I think it's actually the best part of an already excellent movie.

I wouldn't consider it all that "scary" but I can see how some people would, as the way the scene is shot is excellent and gives it that extra oomph. There's also a "twist" in the film that reminds me of the ending in A Serbian Film, except in this film it actually worked.

A Serbian Film sucked, that is all. This movie is also quite violent, at least when Jay and Gal are out completing their contracts. The violence has an edge to it where they don't even need to show you a lot, they do a lot of quick cuts during the film's most violent sequence, and it's still very unsettling.

The acting is strong and the story hints at something that may have happened during Jay and Gal's previous job in Kiev that left Jay mentally scarred. They never even HINT as to what may have happened, but it's still effective since it does help get across Jay and how this affects him and his behavior during the events of the movie.

It was probably for the best that they not reveal what actually happened, since it's far more powerful as a storytelling technique. You don't know what happened in Kiev, but you know that it fucked this guy up to where he has, mentally, become a shell of his former self and you get to see that during the sequence with the librarian and how he reacts to what this person did.

The acting is strong and, most importantly, believable. I don't wanna say the movie is realistic but the acting, the cinematography, the dialogue, etc is believable. It's definitely more of an art-house horror film if you catch my drift.

I loved this movie, it's the type of movie that not everyone will have the patience to sit through and may just quit halfway, but this movie ends up being very rewarding. Well as rewarding as a horror film of this ilk can be.

It's a movie that just held my interest from beginning to end and that's all I can ask. Top-notch horror right here, so it's highly recommended.