Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Editor’s note: be warned that this review contains substantial spoilers. For a less spoilery (though not much more postive) appraisal, see Ben’s review from FrightFest. Alternatively, stop reading once you reach the picture of the person in the funny-looking mask…
It’s always pleasing to witness a British genre film gain some real attention and acclaim, not only from genre fans and critics, but from the mainstream presses too. Kill List’s many festival screenings and theatrical release brought with it a healthy dose of hype, which, somehow, I managed to avoid looking at in any great detail. I like to try not to taint my film experience too much beforehand with other people’s hyperbole, particularly when cries of ‘originality!’ and ‘shocking!’ are being made. Of course, despite my pretentions of avoiding all hype, that’s never possible, and I still watched Kill List expecting something great. Great, though, is not really what I got.
Kill List has many, many strengths. Its core performances are incredibly involving, lead duo Neil Maskell (Jay) and Michael Smiley (Gal) managing to make their monstrous characters compelling, though not likeable, which was key to sustaining my interest in the film, to the end at least. MyAnna Buring fares less well, for me, effective though her performance is as the shrill, irrational Shel. The film looks beautiful to boot, both in its cinematography and its editing. I would have preferred a more judicious use of slow motion, though, and the far more effective use of mismatched sound and visuals is a more impressive, albeit slightly over-used, conspicuous stylistic trick.
Up to a point, the film’s narrative sustains itself too, at least as an interesting thriller. However, from the outset the narrative’s over-riding similarity to another recent horror-thriller is absolutely, fundamentally distracting. Although certainly not plagiarising the earlier film, it hits so many similar beats, offers such similar scenarios that it’s difficult not to draw comparison. Where the film truly falls apart, for me, is in its ending. Now, to contextualise, I really enjoy a bat-shit insane ending, or a good twist, or a lack of closure, or a combination of these things. However, Kill List does not achieve any of these things effectively; its much lauded climax is less of a twist and more of a messy change in pace and tone that raises more questions than it answers. That the film’s climax is infuriatingly similar to the film it’s mimicked for 85 minutes adds insult to injury, and left me scratching my head as to what all the fuss has been about.
SPOILER ALERT!
It’s difficult to describe my problems with the film without explicitly comparing it to A Serbian Film. No, Kill List is not a controversy-baiting questionable political metaphor, yet it bears countless similarities to 2010’s enfant terrible of genre cinema. Change the professions from ‘porn star’ to ‘hit man’ and the basic narrative of both films is the same: traumatised family man who has come upon hard times is encouraged by a former colleague to take on one last job with a mysterious employer. The job spirals out of control, leading to chaos and tragedy.
Okay, so basic narrative similarity is an unfair criticism – such is the nature of genre anyway. But take moments from both films – touching moments between father and son, the sardonic former partner, the mysterious female double agent, the devoted wife, the dark underbelly of a respectable veneer (art/exploitation; politics/cultism) – and the generic narrative similarities start to stand out. But, as I’ve said, it is with the film’s climax that this similarity comes to a head, so to speak – in A Serbian Film, Milos, in his drug-riddled state, rapes his son. Sex has been his profession, his libido his tool, and here at the film’s climax it is put to its most horrifying use. The same, unfortunately, goes for Kill List: Jay, in his final hit, is forced, blinded, to a fight to the death with the Hunchback. Jay is triumphant, his years of experience as a hit man reaching their crescendo as he relentlessly stabs his opponent in the back. The leering, cultish crowd cheers, and the hunchback is revealed to be nothing of the sort, but rather his wife, who had been carrying their son on her back. Jay, using the tools of his trade, has used them in the most horrifying way imaginable, in the murder of his son.
It’s fairly evident that there’s a twist on its way with the ‘hunchback,’ but this jarring similarity makes for a particularly unsatisfying ending. There is no shock value left when it’s been done so recently and so infamously. It’s a damn shame, given as the film is otherwise incredibly promising as a thriller. It’s a film worth watching, and I don’t doubt that without the comparison point of A Serbian Film, it becomes incredibly stronger. However, personally, those similarities were overwhelmingly distracting and detracting. Regardless, Ben Wheatley’s certainly a name to keep an eye on, his stylish eye evident throughout the film.
Along with a couple of film commentaries, the DVD comes with a few interviews with filmmakers and stars, and a brief but interesting ‘making of’ comprised of behind the scenes footage, camera tests and FX details.
Kill List is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 26th December from Studiocanal.