Kill List Review

Directed by Ben Wheatly and starring Neil Maskell, kill list is a British horror film which follows the story of two hit-men who accept a new assignment which starts of easy but soon turns raw. 

What is kill list!? Is it a horror? Is it a thriller? Is it a crime film? At the end of the day it doesn't really matter as the bottom line is this film is absolutely astonishing. The acting, the story, the cinematography, it's all outstanding. Characters are real and believable due to the brilliant bond between to two male leads, this bond makes the horror all the more disconcerting as the film progresses. The film is shot in such a way that you can't escape the trauma, that the characters are facing, your facing it with them. The best scene in the film comes from the tunnel chase in which your following the characters through dark claustrophobic tunnel, while being chased by something sinister. The way that this scene is filmed, lit and the way it sounds gather together to create a masterpiece of a scene, that is unbelievably intense. With the only light coming from the characters head torches, following them in the claustrophobic confines of the tunnel , occasionally going to POV, the only sounds the heavy breathing and the shrieks of the unknown. 

The film contains one of the most complex yet brilliant stories I have ever seen. Ben Wheatly leaves it all down to the viewer to decipher the film, no clear ending is given and it isn't linked through the dialogue. Now you would think that this is a negative in the film, but the fact that he wants you to work for the story for yourself and almost decide your own ending I thought was great. I hate nothing more than a dumb story-line, where the director treats his audience as 3 year old's. 

However some could argue that kill list has gone to far over to the other extreme and doesn't tell you enough about the story, a lot of the film is hard to make sense of and you have to watch it with strict attention. Ultimately the ending gives no clear link with the rest of the story and Ben Wheatly could be (and has been) accused of just being lazy, he didn't know how to end the film, so just plonked on an indecipherable ending that made near to no sense. 

I do not think this however as I think that Kill list is the most important film of the previous year and is one that everybody needs to see. This film is like a jigsaw, slowly piecing together the story until you reach the end when your overwhelmed by the amazing story that you yourself have pieced together. 

100%- An outstanding British horror that will keep your heart racing until the breathtaking ending. 

Calum.Russell