Kill List

Starring: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Burling, Michael Smiley, Harry Simpson

Synopsis:

Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.

Ben Wheatley, a relative newcomer to features, attempts a genre-busting tense thriller with mixed results.

There was quite a push for this movie when it had its limited release and I managed to avoid the theatrical screenings, thanks to circumstance as opposed to a lack of interest. The promotion was heavily centered on the fact that there is a genre-twisting element to this movie. I see this as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. The filmmakers (and I include the distributors in this mix) want the film to be seen, so by advertising the twist get to interest potential viewers: The trouble is that it then raises expectations in the viewer, expectations that I don’t think are met.

The writing and the acting is first class. The characters are well rounded, with a certain amount of mystery thrown in. Contract killer, Jay (Neil Maskell), is feeling pressure from his demanding wife Shel (MyAnna Burling) to get back to work. His best mate Gal (Michael Smiley) draws him back into employment through a contract let by a mysterious organisation that require not only an agreement signed in blood but a series of killings to be carried out one after the other. They are given a list and they set off to carry it out.

Naturally, a well balanced audience like ourselves is going to have difficulty relating to a group of people that either kill for a leaving or live off the profits. Shel troubles me the most, as a character, because she knows what business Jay is in and encourages him to get on and do it. Burling sells the part very well. Whilst she can act and look warm, she generally looks hard and uncompromising in this movie. Maskell is excellent as the multi-layered but, ultimately, psychotic Jay. At first, he appears to be just a product of his work; brutal with a dark sense of humour, and an unusual way of letting off steam, but as the movie progresses it’s a case of “no, he’s a psycho”. Most of the (black) humour is generated by Smiley, not surprisingly. Smiley is a great character actor and he has plenty of moments to shine, through his acting style and Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump’s writing.

Some of the worldlier wise movie viewers could play a drinking game whilst checking off some of the movies Kill List references – either purposefully or by accident. This isn’t a bad thing as I never once thought “They’ve ripped off so and so”. What is it with hammers at the moment? Suddenly movie makers seem to have gone and watched Oldboy (yes, I’m thinking about Drive). One particular scene that stands out and is rightly focused upon by critics (and is ever present in the interviews on the disc), is genuinely stomach churning for its realism and power. This brutality wouldn’t have looked out of place in an Asian action thriller, especially with the long takes that were employed.

On the whole, the movie is incredibly tense, from the domestic bickering through to the wonder at what Jay is going to do next: Then the movie changes somewhat. It’s not unexpected. The publicity art depicts the imagery that is inherent throughout the entire movie and then makes a more meaningful appearance in the last ten minutes. I championed the finale switch at the end of The Last Exorcism because it felt more natural and I could follow exactly what the set up had led to. With Kill List, I found the abstract a little too abstract. There were obvious “clues” leading to the end, but they felt as if they were added in post, rather than included in the main shoot from the screenplay. The main problem is that the mystery so inherent in the movie (what happened in Kiev , for example) is never fully explored and capitalised on. I felt cheated that the movie ended in the way that it did. Instead of employing a horror convention, time could have been spent to end the movie in a less gimmicky way.

Questions that I still have from this movie remain. Was Jay psychotic before or after the job in Kiev? I’d say not because whatever he did in Kiev has taken its toll over the months. Did Jay succumb to some kind of brainwashing, which would explain why his victims recognise him but he isn’t familiar with them? Was the cult an organisation designed to play an elaborate game with Jay? Were they attempting to reduce Jay to his most primal instincts as part of a revenge for a previous contract that he fulfilled? Is the film an allegory to the current state of the UK?

This is why I feel that Kill List is a success rather than a failure. Sure, we don’t get a satisfactorily straightforward ending but it generates questioning and then generates debate amongst those that have seen it. Sometimes, a movie doesn’t have to appear to make sense to make it a great piece of cinema. Kill List deserves to be seen by those who like this type of movie and are open to odd choices from the writer and director.

Summary:

There’s no easy way to describe the movie without spoiling the ending. This movie is almost critic proof in that you’ll make your own mind up when watching it, exactly how the turnaround ending makes you feel and how it might relate to the previous scenes. I urge potential viewers to go with it and see what questions it evokes at the end.

Haven’t I seen them before?

The attractive MyAnn Burling has been seen in the David Tennant era Doctor Who: as Scooti Manista in “The Impossible Planet”. She’s also had memorable roles in Neil Marshall’s movies The Descent, and Doomsday. She also played Angela alongside Danny “His acting’s not that dire” Dyer, in The Devil’s Playground (an overlooked and underrated unofficial companion piece to 28 Days Later).

Neil Maskell should be recognisable to horror film fans as the character “Banksy” alongside Danny “He’s actually good at what he does” Dyer in the awesome Doghouse.

Horror film fans will know Michael Smiley from the Nazi zombie movie Outpost. For me, he’s memorable as the motorbike courier Tyres O’Flaherty in Spaced and Shaun of the Dead (although he was undead in the latter). By the way, anyone know why Neil Maskell’s photograph is up instead of Smiley’s on his IMDB page? Get it right, people!

8 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

New! Comments