Kill List (2011)

I felt compelled to write this review after reading the previous review on here. I fail to see how anyone with a true love for film, especially for the horror genre could possibly say this had a "ham fisted" approach. The largely improvised dialogue is such a pleasure to behold and lends the film an authentic stiflingly creepy mood. Much has been said about the director successfully cross pollinating two genres seamlessly and I concur that this is the effect the film has. Not only will fans of the horror genre find in this film a true cult classic, but it's bleak and improvised nature is very reminiscent of a Ken Loach-esque approach. The pace of the film escalates tirelessly throughout and towards the end of the film certain scenes are so claustrophobic I can honestly say this is the first "horror" film to have genuinely left me feeling unsettled & scared in many years. This film leaves the viewer, shocked and breathless by it's end, and I for one recommend it highly! Hopefully this will have redressed the balance for this film here after the stunning ignorance of the last simple minded review.

Fmovies: 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.

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.

Kill List fmovies. 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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To me, this is an absolute gem. Watched it on Netflix, just because I had nothing better to do. I didn't know anything about this beforehand - and that's the way this is meant to be watched. I was captivated, baffled, horrified and never did I guess what is going to happen next, not once. There are more or less subtle hints throughout the movie that not only shed some light on the bizarre ending but also keep building that disturbing mood that grows stronger and stronger as the movie progresses.

Why this is a hard film, for many, to watch:

• It is extremely violent. This is not gore for gore's sake, this is brutal, dark and realistic violence that adds to the disturbing mood this movie sets. This is not enjoyable violence, this is gripping and shocking violence.

• It gradually changes its tone from a crime story to something surreal, disturbing and mysterious. I loved that, the movie surprised me. The tonal shift won't please everyone.

• The final act is bizarre and certainly does not clearly explain itself. While I was shocked and wanted to have more answers, I really thought that if a movie needs to have an ambiguous ending, this is the way you do it. There are hints along the way, but nothing is too clear or spoon-fed. For many, the ending is a dealbreaker or seals the deal. I loved this movie already before the final act, but there's no denying how powerful the ending is. Also, I'd like to say that there's so much quality in this movie that I really don't think the somewhat open ending is a product of lazy writing. I think it's the product of careful, genuinely good filmmaking.

The acting is phenomenal. Damn you Brits, you really sometimes surprise me. The characters feel like real people. Handling of music, cinematography, editing...you really can see how well this movie is crafted, seems like nothing is rushed or forced and many things are definitely missed on the first viewing. This might look like a cheap, unambitious film at first, but I really think it's quite the opposite. This is, in my mind, an intelligent film. Not a slasher, but an intelligent, shocking story.

This is a hard movie. Hard to watch because of the brutality, hard to totally comprehend because of the ambiguity. But it got me. I was thrilled all the way to the end. Possibly the most disturbing movie I've seen in years, and I've seen a lot of questionable stuff. I don't remember having such an emotional response to a movie for a long, long time. I don't know if I'm going to see it again, because it really disturbed me so much. But I know this: I was captivated, thoroughly at the mercy of this movie, and it didn't let me go.

If you like weird thrillers, check this one out. There's some serious quality and effort here.