This is a pretty trippy film. An independent British production and largely self funded, Kill List is a dark, brooding insight into the extremeties of how vilolence breeds violence, and the consequences.
Kill List appropriates a not too radical set up with flashes of symbolic intrigue; two ex-army assassin pals come out of retirement for one last high-paid job, involving three hits. As the film gathers momentum, contrasting the volatile and somewhat mysterious domestic situations of Jay (Neil Maskell) and his partner Gal (Tyres*), Kill List starts to get a bit more sinister, as they are teased with a reveal of something a lot more freaky going on under the surface of the otherwise banal and standardly average brutal murder spree...
Stylistically Kill List's dark underbelly is served well by the Sheffield locale, inviting immidiate and somewhat too easy comparison with Shane Meadows' gritty and run-down anaesthetic portrait of Northern England. Edited and shot with some real ingenuity; Kill List incorporates some interesting and unique uses of jump cuts, editing and camerawork, all adding to a very vicseral, close knit, fluid feel. These methods all give Kill List a controlled, hyperrealism edge that envokes an arthouse persona hidden within a glossy, blood soaked horror/thriller.
The extreme graphic violence is focused on constantly, never pulled away from, uncomfortably so at some points. Not glamourised at all, the violence in Kill List is very realistic and rightly so. The before and after; the staking out and the clean up, all add to the relentlessness and ambiguity of the effect of the violence on the inflictors.
Anyway, shit starts to go pear for the two when their second victim gives a little more insight into what's going on... 'Thanking' jay for every rebuke with a hammer, he envokes the two to take on some morally crusading extra curricular activity, bringing down a torture-porn ring...
It's after this point Kill List takes a dramatic and unexpected turn, entering the realm of The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby, with a pretty commendable and shocking ending.
Kill List for me says some interesting things about violence, in whatever capacity. It studies how the weight of human morality involved eventually infects your personality. Like a disease or an addiction, it highlights the price of that momentary grasp of power over something, anything can cost you, with a fate worse than death.
Kill List finds an interesting balance for me between various styles and substantial generic qualities, dipping in and out of each across every scene. Overall this maybe detracts from the effectiveness of the film, and can seem a little confusing and hard to stick with but it is unique and does purvey some interesting readings. I did enjoy watching it and the narrative keeps you engaged but the ending, however interesting and suprising, didn't really tie in enough with the rest of the film leading up to it.
Trailer:
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