Finished watching Kill List late last night and it kept for up for most of the night, not because it was so scary but that ending. Did I miss any clues? I knew something was up. When Fiona took Jay's (Neil Maskell) blood and marked their home. The blood pact later on etc. etc. I knew something cultisch was coming up. But I never knew how. Did I miss any other clues? The ending is bizarre too. Right before the reveal I knew what was under the blanket but it still shocked me.
Anyway, the performances are all great. I liked the slow-burn pace. The movie also kept me on the edge of my seat. The gore is brutal, when he kills the LIBRARIAN (IT MUST BE IN CAPS) with that hammer, I was like DAMN SON take a beer and calm the f down. The ending was sudden but I was alright with it. It left at the right point and made me want to think about it. I also believe this is a great movie to watch a second time with the clues you might be seeing the second round.
I do believe it is essential to go into Kill List without knowing what it is about. Don't read the back of the dvd cover, don't look shit up on the internet. Go in as blind as possible. I found out about this one because of a Shockwaves Podcast. And glad I watched it blind. Loved it! (Still a bit confused though)
I recommended this film for me, my friend and her family to watch as I remember being so shocked by it's ending, I'm remembered it being a great film. I looked forward to seeing it again knowing the ending before and hoping to understand it better but I was just left angry. It seemed to make even less sense this time around and I had to Google the plot of the film to understand it. I like it's style and tone so the lack of satisfaction I felt with it's plot is just disappointing.
Interesting story, with some good acting and solid atmosphere. But the editing and heavy accents make it hard to follow what the hell is going on half the time, and you're left playing catch up. As a result it feels a bit pretentious. It may play better on repeat viewings though.
From ths start the characters are unpleasant. A mixture of dull, materialistic, fiery, and cocky assholes. Based on prolific Facebook users maybe?
The mumbling was also an issue. In the dinner table scene near the start I had to go back 3 times to hear what people said, and I still couldn't make it out. I couldn't relate to this story, the relationships nor the characters. Dialogue was so bland.
I know the ending was supposed to be even worse but I couldn't make it that far. It's that boring.
A bumbling and docile plot crammed with a cast of unlikable characters suddenly cranks up the speed tenfold for the last 10 minutes in hopes of executing an edgy and twisty ending. While noteably its gore and tone land well in spatters throughout its runtime, the rest of the movie makes sure any merits fall apart by the rolling of the credits.
6.5/10
Kill List is one of the those movies that follows hitmen, they have a job and they have to kill people. I found it interesting that instead of glorifying the killings and without giving into too much stereotypes, the movie actually focused on more real interactions between the two hitmen and how like us they have conflicts, family problems and a sense of morality and that even though to them it's just like a job, they still are killing people and they have to live with that.
The folly of this is the third act of this movie which turns the structure of this whole "go and kill people without fucking up" into "survive". Which lended the film the tense finale that it had built up.
I liked it enough to recommend watching this with a few friends. Very well made and well-acted, you could understand and see the dilemmas, fear, anger and frustration that the characters were going through. I like that there is a category of movies following morally angry hitmen who die because of their own actions, teaching us that though this job was giving them a lot of easy money, once you step in there is only one way to get out: Die.
Watch more movies like this:
In Bruges
Death Sentence
Bunohan: Return to Murder
So fucking good. I was NOT expecting that ending. After this I'm gonna watch every Ben Wheatley feature (except his 'Rebecca' remake probably) because holy shit this is bold. Probably one of the most brutal films I've seen too - the brutality carries over to the atmosphere of the whole thing.
Bored. Is that 5 words now?
This was definitely a fun movie. A lot of people felt like the ending just kind of dropped off and left you on a cliff hanger. It seems like a lot of indie foreign films do that on purpose so the viewer can decide how they want it to end. Either way, it was definitely a good watch.
What a strange film. This psychological horror incoherently assembles several genres in a strangely compelling way and delivers a really tense and disorienting ride. It starts as a mumblecore drama, then morphs into a hitman thriller and is a fricking folk horror by the end of it. It's a little bit of everything and the change of tone is what makes it a bizarre experience. I really dig the dysfunctional relationship between the leads. There are some unexpected ultra-violent parts in the middle that provide good shock value and the wonderful score ups the creep factor. I'm glad I finally enjoyed something from Ben Wheatley’s work.
Well... okay then... that was a bit intense, especially the violence. Not in an over-the-top torture-porn way but the gore was really quite restrained and realistic. Gonna go watch a romcom to try and recover from this lmao
I have a real soft spot for folk horror. Whether on film or in the work of writers like M R James, the idea that the incomprehensible, the utterly terrifying, could be lurking in plain sight is one that I find endlessly fascinating. It isn't the big-budget horrors that tend to investigate this side of things for a variety of reasons, which is perhaps just as well—originals like Ben Wheatley are more suited to wrapping their own sensibilities around the core concepts.
What Kill List does exceptionally well is build tension, hardly letting up from the opening seconds. Jay and Gal are ex-soldiers turned hitmen who haven't been working in several months because of an unspecified disaster on a previous job. Jay's home life is chaotic—the money has run out and he's emotionally scarred, struggling to connect with his wife and son. When he has Gal and his girlfriend over for dinner, a chain begins that really takes a turn for the macabre.
The plot is kept at arm's length throughout, Wheatley prioritising atmosphere and cranking up the dread as every minute passes. Given a new assignment, the people involved become stranger and stranger. Gal seems confused and alarmed but Jay sails through almost serenely, happily fulfilling his mandate. In the final third of the film, it tips over into full-throated horror, something that many critics didn't like. Personally, I loved it—the arcaneness of it, the foreshadowing, the nods to earlier giants of the genre.
The final revelation thrilled rather than confused me, and if you like your horror embedded in the countryside, in rituals and signs, then I can't recommend Kill List enough. Few films are bold enough to suggest so explicitly the inherent strangeness in day-to-day life as well as the terrifying nature of the familiar when inverted.
A classic...One of the best movies I have seen in a long time.Anyone who liked this should also check out Dead man's shoes.Another great British movie. Film at its very best.
Wow, not what I was expecting and came as a real shock... but in a good way... think Eyes Wide Shut, Wicker Man, and you're some of the way there... excellent cast and directing by great British people. Be warned, this is not easy viewing and the worst part is... this stuff actually goes on. Powerful, hard hitting and memorable. 7.5/10
Shout by LISHVIP 9BlockedParent2015-04-28T15:41:57Z
I was very much enjoying this movie up until the end. They really lost me with how they tied things up. I didn't find it shocking. It felt almost tacked-on and over the top. I figured there must be more, so I read some theories people had about the movie and none were satisfying. With that said, the first two acts of the movie were very interesting. It's still worth a watch. Unfortunately, it lost quite a few points from me because of the ending.