Review of Kill List (2011) by Rob L — 06 Feb 2012

Having recently enjoyed the drollery and black humour of the same director's Down Terrace, I was enormously impressed by the first four fifths of this film. Many of the same actors appear (indeed, almost the entire cast reappears) and there are some smart set pieces - the repugnant lead's disruption of an impromptu Christian sing-a-long almost makes one root for him for a millisecond and you can never have too many appearances of Travelodges on the silver screen.

Thankfully, the ending, while ridiculous and playing into the Hollywood pattern that insists all movies end with twenty minutes of running about (or 'runnin' abaaaat' as the Cockney hero would say it) is not too overdone and contains enough mysticism to keep one guessing - it does, however, owe as much to the Wicker Man as Northern Uproar did to Oasis - i.e. oodles. A really strong second film from Wheatley whose forthcoming third effort promises much, taking in as it does the Crich Tramway Museum, the Ribblehead Viaduct and Keswick Pencil Museum.