In an uncharacteristic turn of good fortune, I became the owner of a pair of tickets to see this British horror/thriller-type film make its UK debut at the Film4 FrightFest. It was considered to be one of the high points of the festival, being awarded a full five stars by sponsors Total Film (the magazine responsible for furnishing me with the tickets). So off to London I went, meeting my esteemed sibling at Leicester Square, and proceeding straight to the cinema, with just a brief “Ooh, is that Neil Marshall?” along the way. A couple of hours later we made our exit, smiley face belying the inner “what the hell was that all about?” which took a few more hours to ferment and bubble to the surface during the car journey home… so what the hell was that all about? To give much away about Kill List would be to do both it and you, dear reader, a great disservice, because this is a fairly unconventional film that relies heavily on the audience’s nervous uncertainty over what is yet to come. So, whilst I will endeavour to give away as little as possible here, if you wish your experience to be truly unsullied by prior knowledge of it, then look away now (as the actress said to the bishop).
Kill List follows Jay, an assassin and former army sniper, out of work for 8 months and pressured back into the game by the expenses of family life, as he and his partner take on a job to dispatch three people, with no idea of why they must die. They duly follow orders and professionally set about bringing death to their targets… but then things start to become a little strange. Is Jay going a little mad, is someone out to get him, or is something else entirely going on?
The tense atmosphere of foreboding is created with hardly any telegraphing of the developments to come, and I was on the edge of my seat for much of the screening… the downside of this being that the mood is perhaps too dark even for this kind of tale, as even the lighter, humorous moments are coated in the shadow of what is to come and what has gone before. That is a small price to pay however. The big problem comes at the climax (of which I shall tell you absolutely nothing!!!), when you are kicked squarely in the gut by the happenings on screen, stop to take a breath, then think to yourself “I have absolutely no idea what was going on in that film”.
Now, to be fair to writer/director Ben Wheatley, there was just about enough on screen for the more observant of the audience to be able to work out the nuances of the story, as my brother and I did on our journey home. Sadly, not all the threads tie together, and there are a handful of sizable contradictions. The number one rule of trying to be clever when making a film is “be tidy”; if your plot is intricate or obscured, make sure that it still makes sense. Kill List doesn’t. It comes close, but in the end not close enough.
That said, I think Kill List might be something of a must-experience film for anyone with a liking for horror films, or the grittier side of the British industry. The performers are all on the top of their game, the director crafts a genuinely involving aura throughout, and it was immense fun trying to fit all the bits together afterwards, even if they didn’t quite all go. Additionally, if you like that sort of thing, the most repellent of the violent scenes all got applause and even cheers from the FrightFest crowd, those most discerning of violence fans.
It is always nice to see something quite different from the norm, and I shall be keeping an eye open for Mr. Wheatley next offering, as well as anything featuring the wonderful Michael Smiley, here playing the second hitman, Gal.
***/*****
