Review of Kill List (2011) by Matt C — 16 Apr 2013
Directed by ad man Ben Wheatley (Sightseers (2012)), this is a very bleak and nasty horror film, and it's not an easy film to watch. It's also a horror film that manages to be a road move, a weird buddy movie, a domestic drama and a mystery movie as well.
It has some good performances in it, but it does have some very violent moments in it, and it is truly disturbing not going for scares, just a very dark mood. Jay (Neil Maskell) and Gal (Michael Smiley) are ex-army soldiers who now work as hitmen.
Jay is suffering from post-traumatic stress after something happened in Kiev, and despite the best efforts of his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring), he has some very violent outbursts. At an evening dinner, Jay tells Gal that they've been offered another job by their unknown client (Struan Rodger), which they take.
It's a job which requires them to take 3 hits, one is a priest, the other is someone who distributes child pornography and then a member of parliament. But while on their way to all of the hits, Jay starts to lose his mind again, which upsets Gal greatly.
It's not a film you can stick on at a moments notice, this is the sort of film which is draining and exhausting to watch. But, for a low budget film, it's one done professionally, and writer/director Ben Wheatley is definitely a name to look out for, he'll go far.
This review of Kill List (2011) was written by Matt C on 16 Apr 2013.
Kill List has generally received positive reviews.
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