A bad habit I indulge in occasionally is reading the wikipedia plot summaries of thrillers or horrors that I can’t be arsed watching. I had heard good things about Kill List (2011) and that didn’t stop me from spoiling it for myself when I was bored and reading what happened. Yet watching it for the first time even after knowing where it goes, the film was still a tense, engaging experience (a lesson in not what but how). Beginning first as a kitchen sink domestic drama then turning into a hitmen gangster film, all the while ratcheting up creepy, horror elements in the background that build into a nightmarish final act. Neil Maskell plays an unemployed ex-soldier with a headstrong wife (MyAnna Buring) and a child. He decides to get back into the contract killing game with his army pal (played by Michael Smiley). A “kill list” is presented by an ominous gent (Struan Rodger) and things get very violent as well as very, very strange. Not everything is explained by the end, which will frustrate some and satisfy others in its interpretive mysteries. Effective editing, camera placement and music, as well as good acting, help cohere this low budget film into atmospheric and unsettling results. While I have a mixed reaction to director Ben Wheatley’s bigger budget fare (Free Fire and High Rise were unsatisfying to me), I really enjoyed his recent comedy drama Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (again with Maskell in the lead) and look forward to catching up with his earlier, acclaimed work. Available to stream on Stan.
VHS Tracking 