Kill List

Plot

Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.

Release Year: 2011

Rating: 6.2/10 (5,446 voted)

Critic's Score: 65/100

Director:
Ben Wheatley

Stars: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson

Storyline
Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.

Writers: Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump

Cast:

Neil Maskell
–

Jay

MyAnna Buring
–

Shel

Harry Simpson
–

Sam

Michael Smiley
–

Gal

Emma Fryer
–

Fiona

Struan Rodger
–

The Client

Esme Folley
–

Hotel Receptionist

Ben Crompton
–

Justin

Gemma Lise Thornton
–

Keira

Robin Hill
–

Stuart

Zoe Thomas
–

Hotel Waitress

Gareth Tunley
–

The Priest

Jamelle Ola
–

Hotel Receptionist 2

Mark Kempner
–

The Librarian

Damien Thomas
–

The Doctor

Details

Official Website:
Official site |

Release Date: 2 September 2011

Filming Locations: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Box Office Details

Budget: £500,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: $9,838
(USA)
(5 February 2012)
(2 Screens)

Gross: $19,548
(USA)
(19 February 2012)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Quotes:

Gal:
I hate dirty soap.

User Review

The best of films, the worst of films

Rating: 4/10

The Kill List is totally brilliant – and absolute rubbish. More
specifically, the first 75% of the movie is fantastic – sharply
written, wonderfully acted, supremely directed, and filled with tension
and realism.

And then it all goes wrong.

I'd heard a few reviews of this film before choosing to see it, and it
irks me that not one of them revealed that the last quarter of The Kill
List is so divorced from the first that it's like watching a different
film altogether. It reminded me of Charlie Kaufman's brilliant
Adaptation, where the lead character's idiot brother suddenly steps in
to finish the movie. Hilarious in that case – mystifying in this.

Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump start by crafting a stunning examination of
the family life of a suburban hit-man that makes The Sopranos look
glitzy. Neil Maskell is unnerving as Jay, whose long hiatus from 'work'
has led to constant fighting with his wife. Their son witnesses the
discord, and the tension and humanity is palpable.

Then Jay is drawn back into doing a well-paid job by his old crony,
Gal, and the plot starts to thicken. Gradually the low-key family
realism gives way to a realism of a far nastier kind, coupled with
sudden moments of real mystery and total surprise.

Wheatley layers the non-action with skill, and really knows how to
ratchet up the intrigue. The three main characters are all very good,
and even the smaller roles of the son and girlfriend are well played
and brilliantly written. You get the feeling you are watching something
very special unfold on screen, with no indication of how it will all be
resolved. I am a hardened end-guesser and am often right, but with this
movie I had NO IDEA where it was going, which is exciting and rare.

However, just as I was preparing for a stunning denouement with all the
seemingly-impossible ends tied up, The Kill List turned an ankle and
tripped into a ditch full of dung.

O. M. G.

I'm not into writing spoilers – even when the filmmakers have done more
spoiling than I ever could in this case. Suffice to say that 'and then
he woke up and it was all a dream' would have been a more credible
ending, and would at least have made sense of SOME of the set up,
instead of none of it at all.

If there was ever a progression of narrative here, it is lying
somewhere on a cutting room floor, crying its eyes out at the wasted
opportunity.

When the credits came up, there was a stunned silence in the packed
cinema and someone turned to his mate and said:'That's the last time
YOU choose the effing film'. Judging by the snorts of sympathetic
laughter it caused, I'd say it was the best review I'd heard of The
Kill List.

I've never been so disappointed by a film that promised so much.