La Liste à Tuer

Very surprised that the rating for this film has balanced out at 6.4 after twelve years (and that this will only be review no. 310). I don't even like Horror films but rated Kill List at 7-8/10 and fail to see how anyone could turn their nose up to this nasty, gritty little piece of work (many of the most recent reviews are a mystifying 1-3/10). It's psychological horror, rather than gore - although the 'hammer scene' is brutal and by all accounts still a production mystery - and, if the story elements weren't already disturbing enough, the brooding, menacing tension is amplified further by the haunting whistling, original sound design and jump editing style, which adds an intentionally rough edge to an already unpleasant mix. The cast are mostly strong, Neil Maskell powers it through from the first scene and the look on Gal's face in the car when the pair realise exactly what they've got themselves into says it all.

The first few frames of this film had me concerned that i'd be watching one of those 'guns n geezers' films that have furnished the careers of Danny Dyer,Nick Love and the like, but these worries were quickly quelled as i found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the world of these odd characters and their violent, unstable lives. There is an intensity to 'Kill List', similar to that felt when watching the 'funny how?' scene in Goodfella. The threat of violence hangs ever present throughout and i can honestly say, the film is one of the toughest viewing experiences i have ever had. Not only is the threat and intensity level turned up to number 11, the actual explosions of violence made me go light headed, one in particular. Overall, it's hard to argue against Kill List, yes it's overly violent, yes it's full of darkness and brimming malice, but it's succeeds as it sets out to. Bad things happen to bad people.

Jay is a former soldier who has been working as a hitman with friend Gal but after a job went wrong in Kiev he has been avoiding working for eight months. Now his wife thinks it is time for him to get back to work. After some pressure he agrees to do another job with Gal; they meet the client and learn that there are to be three targets on their kill list. The first is relatively easy if a little surprising; things get very messy on the second job but that is nothing compared to the third; that is downright weird taking the film and its characters from a crime film into the territory of horror.

This certainly won't be for everybody. It is brutally violent at times; this is done in a disturbingly realistic manner with nothing stylised or humorous to make it easier to watch. The change of genres comes as a genuine surprises even though there are earlier hints that something strange is going on; notably how the victims react as they are about to be murdered. Thankfully it isn't entirely bleak; some of Jay and Gal's conversations are quite funny. The cast does a fine job; most notably Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley as Jay and Gal and MyAnna Buring as Shel. The cinematography is great giving the early sections of the film a very real feel while the conclusion is made to feel like a nightmare. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to anybody who doesn't mind being disturbed and enjoys a conclusion that leave them thinking about what they have just watched.

Lodging itself eventually in the creepy-people-doing-creepy-things tradition of religious/occult horror films like The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby, director Ben Wheatley's hit-man horror flick Kill List comes on, initially, like a bad-boy bit of British Social realism.

It's rough around the edges, shaggy and idiosyncratically edited, with dialogue so unpolished and authentic-seeming that it's occasionally hard to decipher. It's filled with a handful of legitimately great performances by actors allowed to work improvisationally, seemingly, lending the first half of the film an incredibly charming unpredictability, a low-key volatility that had me bouncing back and forth between moments of disturbing darkness and happy familial pleasantries. Then it gets really crazy.

Jay and Gal are ex-army, estranged friends and partners in crime. Eight months after a disastrous (and mysterious) gig in Kiev, Jay's home life is disintegrating, and after a raucous dinner party with his ex-partner and his creepy new girlfriend he agrees to get back in the saddle and take a job. They're given a list - three targets - and soon they're settling back into a charmingly macabre groove, carousing "salesmen" on the road from town to town and target to target. But after an inadvertent discovery during a routine bit of hit-man work derails their plans, the pair realize they may be part of something much bigger - and much darker - than a back-room murder-for-hire.

Kill List a stunning piece of very smart genre filmmaking. Wheatley not-so-gently inserts chunks of spooky, disturbing horror into what's already a charmingly dark kitchen sink drama. It's this transition - that either a social realist framework can be twisted into a framework supporting high horror or that a horror film can work filled with improvisational dialogue and broody bits of working-class British anxiety - that makes the film such an immense, jarring pleasure.

Will it work for horror fans used to slick, post-'80s supernatural spookery? Will Ken Loach fans do with a little blood and forest horror? Who knows. For fans of both, it's a stunning - literally - hybrid, something completely unexpected, a real discovery. Kill List is a brilliant idea, brilliantly well executed.

It's been a while since I've seen a film that both attracted and repulsed me. "Kill List" has managed to do just that.

It's a difficult film to describe. Suffice it to say, it's been tagged a horror film and that the "similar" films referenced in other reviews give too much away. Let me just attempt to give you some idea of what you might experience if you choose to take a chance and seek out this film.

Before I begin, it must be said that this is a British film, and some of the accents are thicker than the Great Grimpen Mire. Sit back, and let your ears adjust.

The first third of the film might give you the impression it's a family drama. It isn't.

The second third of the film might give you the impression that it's a crime drama. It isn't.

Then comes the final third. It will make you question everything you've seen up to that point and either infuriate you or cause you to manually lift your jaw off the sticky theatre floor. It's out there. Waaaay out there.

The film does a terrific job of building a mood and layering suspense with discomfort. It is an incredibly violent film, graphic in a way I haven't seen since Gasper Noes' "Irreversible." The violence is intrinsic to the film and to its protagonist, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch.

This film bothered me, and except for the extreme violence, I can't really explain why. It left me feeling uneasy and uncomfortable - but I couldn't stop watching. I have so many questions about what I just watched that I will probably watch it again – and I will probably still be bothered.

When's the last time you said that about a film that wasn't a documentary?

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