Down-on-his-luck contract killer Jay (Neil Maskell) and his best pal Gal (Michael Smiley) accept an assignment that slowly draws them into a world of satanic horror from which there is no escape.
Kill List's choppy editing style, intense characters, gritty atmosphere, improvisational performances, and gut-churning moments of extreme brutality all make for a very uneasy viewing experience, but once director Ben Wheatley introduces his film's satanic element, its a growing sense of familiarity that makes for a less than comfortable watch.
To put it another way, the film is bordering on brilliant until Wheatley's influences become blatantly obvious, after which it loses much of its initial impact. As Kill List progresses, it becomes possible to draw more and more parallels to several other horror titles, most notably Race With The Devil, The Wicker Man, and A Serbian Film, and as a result the film is difficult to admire as a whole.
Fans of really violent movies should check this out purely for one incredibly nasty scene—a well executed, extremely vicious hammer attack that leaves the victim with several irreparably broken bones and his brains on the outside—but be prepared to feel more than a bit frustrated by the time the film's final predictable twist is brought into play.
9/10 for everything up to the 'torch-light procession through the woods' scene, 3/10 for the rest; although this averages out at a fairly respectable 6/10, it's still a disappointing score for a film that, for a while, looked like it might have been a modern classic.
Kill List's choppy editing style, intense characters, gritty atmosphere, improvisational performances, and gut-churning moments of extreme brutality all make for a very uneasy viewing experience, but once director Ben Wheatley introduces his film's satanic element, its a growing sense of familiarity that makes for a less than comfortable watch.
To put it another way, the film is bordering on brilliant until Wheatley's influences become blatantly obvious, after which it loses much of its initial impact. As Kill List progresses, it becomes possible to draw more and more parallels to several other horror titles, most notably Race With The Devil, The Wicker Man, and A Serbian Film, and as a result the film is difficult to admire as a whole.
Fans of really violent movies should check this out purely for one incredibly nasty scene—a well executed, extremely vicious hammer attack that leaves the victim with several irreparably broken bones and his brains on the outside—but be prepared to feel more than a bit frustrated by the time the film's final predictable twist is brought into play.
9/10 for everything up to the 'torch-light procession through the woods' scene, 3/10 for the rest; although this averages out at a fairly respectable 6/10, it's still a disappointing score for a film that, for a while, looked like it might have been a modern classic.