Ben Wheatley’s genre-smashing sophomore feature Kill List made a big splash at festivals earlier this year with both critics and audiences delivering accolades to the filmmakers. Kill List is the story of hit man Jay (Neil Maskell), who’s been out of work for eight months, and his partner Gal (Michael Smiley) reuniting on a new job to bring in some cash. Jay’s struggling to make ends meet alongside his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring), a Ukrainian who met Jay years before on one of his tasks in the Eastern Bloc. When Gal brings Jay into the fold on a new job that will end the lives of a priest, a librarian, and a member of Parliament, Jay has no choice but to participate. As the killings begin and Jay begins to demonstrate not only a talent, but a grim liking for murder, the entire job starts to unravel and Jay and Gal discover the darkest qualities of men in the most shadowy corners of the world.
As noted above, Kill List tends to smash genres together rather than blend or mix them. The movie’s first act is a plodding and tense family drama in which Jay fights endlessly with Shel to no avail. They are stuck in the midst of the recession and Jay seems unwilling to do anything about it until Gal arrives with a potential solution. Once the scheme to commit three murders ensues, the film takes a sharp right into crime-thriller territory with Wheatley directing the two hit men in a fierce and deliberate series of retributive killings. Finally, Kill List’s third act arrives and – without spoiling too much – it veers onto the familiar pathway of a psychological horror-thriller. What’s more is that this actually works. It shouldn’t. The parts don’t mesh and it resembles a collection of three intertwined stories, but it somehow manages to work. This is primarily due to stellar acting from the leads and clever direction that gives each genre vignette its time to shine. Wheatley directs a drama, then a crime-thriller, and then a horror film and he does each one more than adequately. With the exception of the pacing in the first, dramatic act, Kill List’s flaws in execution are few and far between.
The narrative arc is what nearly buries the film for the audience. As Jay continues down his rather sadistic path toward his twisted version of normalcy, we come to loathe and fear the irrepressibly out-of-touch hit man. Kill List builds and builds the tension and the drama, even throughout its disconcertingly separate segments, until it reaches an ending so ambiguously bizarre and stolen straight out of more well-known films that it ruins some of the experience. I would almost recommend turning the film off at a certain point just to keep from spoiling the rather masterful filmmaking on display throughout the majority of the film. Everything in the storytelling deflates when an event leads a broken and beaten Jay to his ultimate and inexplicable end.
Movie Rating: A brutal and unforgiving look at the worst side of humanity through a hit man’s eyes falls on its sword when the strange and trite ending cannot match the superb execution of the opening acts. (6/10)
The visuals on the Kill List Blu-Ray are particularly great and demonstrate that great care went into making this indie flick look like a studio release. Careful art direction and camerawork are the highlights in many of the on-screen images. The audio is also done well, with the sound design bringing to life the gruesome noises of the gory happenings in the film.
The Blu-Ray disc features three interviews with the director Ben Wheatley, the lead actors, and the producers. There is also a brief behind-the-scenes look at the film and a quick featurette.
Blu-Ray Disc Rating: This is far from a must own, but fans of the crime, horror, and thriller genres may want to take a look. (7/10)
Kill List is now available on Bluray and DVD from IFC Films
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