Rent Kill List (2011)

Mild Spoilers ... - Kill List review by NP

This begins with a full-throated argument between Jay and Shell (Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring), who live the kind of life documented by the likes of EastEnders. Gal and his new partner Fiona (Michael Smiley and Emma Fryer) come around for a dinner party typically punctuated by further profanity lead disagreements – and then Fiona visits the restroom, lifts the mirror off the wall, and scratches a symbol on the back. When she leaves, she takes a tissue with a sample of Jay’s blood. The next day, she and Gal have split up.

Gal and Jay are contract killers. Their new job is with A Client (Struan Roger) who insists on sealing the deal by cutting hands and exchanging blood. After a series of violent exchanges that threaten to tip the drama into a graphic crime caper, Jay sees Fiona from his hotel window, inexplicably standing outside in the night, waving. Equally odd, a number of the men they have been assigned to kill make a point of ‘thanking’ Jay shortly before he kills them.

Unnerved, the two men try to end their contract with The Client, who promises their families will all die if they renege. So, they continue to their next kill. This involves a group of cultists, who they see commit a human sacrifice. It is at this point that it is suddenly obvious that Gal and Jay, so cocksure and secure in their violence, are wholly out of their depth and dealing with forces they cannot understand. It is also at this point that the domestic drama cum crime caper has entered its true nature of fully fledged horror.

(Spoilers) In the final ‘chapter’, entitled The Hunchback, Jay is forced to combat a hunchbacked, masked character as the cultists surround them. He wins the contest by killing his assailant with multiple stab wounds. On removing the robes, he sees it is Shell, with their son strapped to her back, who he has killed. He is the victor, and is applauded by the cult, who embrace him as their own. As the other cultists remove their cowls, The Client, Jay’s doctor and Fiona are revealed to be among their number.

Like Director Ben Wheatley’s later ‘A Field in England (2013)’ this is almost impossible to categorise, and leaves the viewer wondering if everything that has occurred during the last 95 minutes actually comes together to make sense. The imagery stays in the mind, and, like in a dream, it is a challenge to put some of the pieces together. It is unsettling, graphic, convincing and compelling and the acting from all is exemplary.

Disturbing, claustrophobic thriller + horror - Kill List review by RP

Slow starting at suburban dinner party with old ex-army mates Jay (Neil Maskell) + wife and Gal (Michael Smiley) + girlfriend, moving on as we learn that they are contract killers, moving on to accepting a contract to kill a list of people (priest, librarian, MP). And as the killing starts so does the violence - and the killing of the 'librarian' with a hammer is much worse then the violence in, for example, 'Drive'.

The story then takes a bizarre turn as the killers are pressured to complete the job and kill the MP and find him celebrating some weird ritual on his country estate. Chase sequence, scary stuff, building to a climax where Jay is forced to kill a 'hunchback' - with tragic results.

Plenty of violence, plenty of f-ing and blinding (don't watch it with your granny) as the story leads the viewer into an uncomfortable zone where belief is suspended and the disturbing, claustrophobic feel of the ending seems all too real.

This is scary stuff - if you like a mix of thriller + horror then give this one a go. You certainly won't forget it. 4/5 stars.

Confused thriller-cum-horror - Kill List review by PV

This is a confused film - with a lot of mumbling dialogue so use subtitles maybe.

It starts as a thriller, then morphs into an occult horror. Much is unexplained which annoyed me. I notice a lot of more recent horror films do this esp British ones - no doubt film schools tell students not to show the viewer too much as they can work it out., Well, you need to give the viewer ENOUGH to make sense of it and understand why, for example, a character is thanked by those on the Kill List, and why he seems to be worshipped by them.

I think it just aims to shock esp the final segment. Fine. But you can shock without baffling the viewer.

Decent acting. Many scenes and aspects should be cut - the Swedish wife background, no doubt to explain that she knows how to use a gun... And why is domestic violence when this wife hits her husband - on 2 separate occasions - acceptable? Imagine it the other way round.

Reminds me a bit of THE RITUAL - which is the better film, with Rafe Spall.

3 stars. JUST.