''Kill List'' is a 2011 British
psychological horror
Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Ben Wheatley
Benjamin Wheatley (born 7 May 1972) is an English filmmaker and screenwriter. Beginning his career in advertising, Wheatley first gained recognition and acclaim for his commercials and short films, before transitioning into feature films and tel ...
, co-written and co-edited with
Amy Jump
Amy Jump (born 1972) is a British screenwriter and editor, best known for films including ''Kill List'', ''A Field in England'', and ''High-Rise''. She and her husband, director Ben Wheatley, have been described as 'one of the most formidable ...
, and starring
Neil Maskell
Neil Maskell (born 1976) is an English actor, writer and director who is known for his appearances in British crime and horror films such as '' The Football Factory'' and ''Kill List''.
Early life
Maskell was born in London. As a youth, he pl ...
,
MyAnna Buring
MyAnna Buring (; born 22 September 1979 as Anna Margaretha My Rantapää) is a Swedish actress, known for her roles in ''The Descent'', ''Kill List'', '' The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', ''Ripper Street'', ''The Witc ...
and
Michael Smiley
Michael Smiley (born 1963) is a Northern Irish comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films ''Kill List'' (2011) and ''The Lobster'' (2015).
Early life
Smiley was born in 1963 in Belfast and grew up in Holywood with a ...
.
When a British soldier returns home from
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, he joins an old friend in working as
contract killers
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...
. His disturbed past surfaces as he spins out of control during jobs and ominous employers raise the stakes. It was filmed in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
in England.
Plot
Jay and Gal are two former British soldiers turned
hitmen
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
. While Gal is laid-back, Jay is still reeling from an unspecified disastrous mission in
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
. Despite the urging of his wife Shel, Jay has not obtained full employment, to the point where they are financially broke.
Shel organizes a dinner party to which she invites Gal and his latest girlfriend, Fiona, a
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...
manager. During the evening, Gal reveals he has a new job for them, which Shel encourages him to take. Meanwhile, Fiona goes to the toilet, carves a symbol on the back of the bathroom mirror, and takes a tissue that Jay had used to mop up his blood after a shaving accident. Jay accepts the job, and the two meet the shadowy client, who has a list of three people he wants killed. The employer unexpectedly cuts Jay's hand and his own, so that the contract is effectively signed in blood.
Their first target, captioned as "''The Priest''", appears to recognize Jay and thanks him just before being killed. The second name on the list, "''The Librarian''", is an archivist who keeps a collection of horrific, sickening videos of an undisclosed nature. Upon watching the videos, Jay is deeply disturbed and breaks down in tears. Confronting the archivist at his home, an enraged Jay beats him senseless and tortures him into identifying the names of the people who created the videos. As Gal goes to raid the safe, the archivist thanks Jay, who proceeds to savagely beat him to death with a hammer. Jay insists on chasing down and killing the archivist's associates, and as Gal looks into their files, he finds a folder on himself and Jay, including details of their Kyiv mission. Although they do not recognize it, the file includes the symbol that Fiona carved in Jay's mirror.
Upon Jay's insistence, Gal drives to the location of the creators of the sickening videos, where Jay promptly murders all of them in horrific fashion.
Gal informs Jay that, while raiding the safe in the home of the second target, he took enough money to cover the total sum they would receive for the contract. The pair decide to abandon the contract and return home. When his cut hand becomes infected, Jay visits his doctor, only to find that his regular doctor has been replaced by another man who will only give him cryptic advice. Jay and Gal return to their client and offer to find replacements to kill the last name on the list. The client refuses and says that both hitmen and their families will be killed if they do not complete the contract as they agreed. Shel takes their son Sam to the family's cottage for safekeeping while Jay and Gal go back to work.
Their final mark, "''The MP''", is a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
who lives in a
mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...
. While observing the house, the pair witness a strange ceremony in the woods that culminates in
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
. Jay opens fire with an assault rifle, and the leader of the ceremony presents himself for Jay to execute. He kills the leader and several cultists before the remaining masked members chase the hitmen into an underground complex. They capture and disembowel Gal, forcing Jay to perform a mercy killing on him. Emerging from the tunnels, Jay flees to the family cottage and meets with Shel. When he goes outside, he finds their car tires have been slashed and lit torches have been placed around the nearby field. Jay attempts to locate their attackers, but he is knocked unconscious. Inside the cottage, Shel arms herself and shoots several invaders.
Jay awakens in the field surrounded by the cultists, who strip him and place a mask over his face. He is confronted by his last victim, "''The Hunchback''", a masked and cloaked person armed with a knife. After a brutal knife fight, Jay triumphs, only to discover that the Hunchback was his wife with Sam strapped to her back. Shel laughs as she dies. The cultists applaud and remove their masks, revealing Fiona, the client, and the man from the doctor's office amongst their numbers. Jay is then crowned by the cultists.
Cast
Production
After making ''
Down Terrace
''Down Terrace'' is a 2009 British crime film directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Robin Hill, Robert Hill and Julia Deakin.
Plot
Upon release from prison, Bill and his son Karl arrive home at Down Terrace in Brighton. With the help of his ...
'', Wheatley wanted to use the lessons learned to make a horror film. The original treatment was a hybrid of the styles and themes of ''
Get Carter
''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel ''Jack's Return Hom ...
'' and
H. P. Lovecraft that was to have been shot in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
[ Shooting took place over 18 days.][ Wheatley was influenced by ]Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
in that he sought to find imagery first, then wove the plot around it. In each scene, they shot one take using the script and then paraphrased and improvised. The actors also worked out back stories for their characters through improvisation. The script was much more explicit in its themes and ideas, but Wheatley edited the film to form a more ambiguous and minimalist story. By keeping allusions to those scenes, he wanted to give viewers enough information to form their own interpretation. Wheatley dislikes exposition, so he decided to avoid it. Instead, he focused on his own fears: nightmares that he had as a child and domestic disharmony. Themes included suburban desolation, homogeneity, and showing hitmen as violent murderers. Wheatley also wanted to highlight current events: unpopular wars, a recession, and erosion of the social contract.
The film's story came partially from casting ideas, and Wheatley specifically wrote the part of Jay for Neil Maskell, with whom he'd worked previously on a TV series. Wheatley always had a plan for the ending and made sure the story was logically consistent, though he states that there are multiple possible interpretations and the cult itself remains scarier when its motives and background are shrouded in mystery. Wheatley states that cultists are a popular choice of antagonist because people are uneasy about the world and feel a lack of control and understanding; politicians and bankers who control their lives seem inscrutable. The cult's symbol was designed by Wheatley, who later recognised influence from ''The Blair Witch Project
''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (director), Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Mic ...
''. Wheatley was worried people might call him on its similarities, but he was instead surprised to find people comparing it to a symbol from ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the seventh and final novel of the main ''Harry Potter'' series. It was released on 21 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publi ...
'', with which he is unfamiliar.[ The film's most violent scene, the hammer murder, came about when Wheatley was surprised at the shocking violence in '' The Orphanage'', which he had assumed would be a subtle art-house film. Wheatley stated that this turn toward violent horror in ''The Orphanage'' made the rest of the film unpredictable; he wanted a similar unpredictability in his own film, so that viewers were never sure whether the film would be subtle or explicit.][
The song "It Could Have Been Better", used in the film, is performed by ]Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...
. It was written by Armatrading and Pam Nestor and is from the 1972 album ''Whatever's for Us
''Whatever's for Us'' is the debut album of British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. The album was a collaboration between Armatrading and singer-songwriter Pam Nestor. At the time the two were musical partners and wrote over a hundred son ...
''.
Release
The film's North American premiere was 12 March 2011 at SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
in Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
.[ It was released to UK cinemas on 2 September 2011. ]IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
brought the film to video on demand 4 January 2012, and it received a US theatrical release 3 February 2012. It was released on home video in the UK on 26 December 2011 and 14 August 2012 in the US.
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, a review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
, reports that 77% of 87 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, and the average rating was 7.1/10; the consensus is: "''Kill List'' is an expertly executed slow-burn crime thriller that thrives on tension before morphing into visceral horror." Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
rated the film 67/100 based on 22 reviews.
''Total Film
''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...
'' rated the film 5/5 stars and said that as well as being a horror film it was "also a mystery movie, a road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...
and a grotesque riff on Arthurian legend
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
, and is influenced as much by John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and dire ...
, Alan Clarke
Alan John Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was an English television and film director, producer and writer.
Life and career
Clarke was born in Wallasey, Wirral, England.
Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, ...
and Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...
as ''Witchfinder General
Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...
'', ''The Wicker Man
''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 nov ...
'' and ''The Blood on Satan's Claw
''The Blood on Satan's Claw'' is a 1971 British supernatural horror film directed by Piers Haggard and starring Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, and Barry Andrews. Set in early 18th-century England, it follows the residents of a rural village w ...
''" before concluding that " thentic dialogue, pitch-perfect performances and seductively scuzzy images comprise a film funny and bleak, tender and cruel, serious and 'out-there'. British horror has rarely hit these heights since the mid-'70s." Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
reviewed the film for ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and compared it to ''The Wicker Man'' and ''The Blair Witch Project
''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (director), Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Mic ...
'', but he also said that ''Kill List'' "often looks like a film by Lynne Ramsay
Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films '' Ratcatcher'' (1999), '' Morvern Callar'' (2002), '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011), and ''You Were N ...
or even Lucrecia Martel
Lucrecia Martel (born December 14, 1966) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer whose feature films have frequented Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and many other international film festivals. Film scholar Paul Julian Smith w ...
, composed in a dreamily unhurried arthouse-realist style that is concerned to capture texture, mood and moment", concluding that " far as British horror goes right now, ''Kill List'' is pretty much top of the range". Mark Kermode
Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
reviewed the DVD release for ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' and stated that " e end result is one of the most genuinely disturbing films of the year, a ruthless exercise in audience manipulation that will put even the most hardened genre fans through the emotional mangler" and he later named it one of his favourite films of 2011. Philip French
Philip Neville French Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio prod ...
of ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' called the film an "edgy, mysterious thriller that begins in one generic mode and jumps, or modulates, into another". Tom Huddleston of ''Time Out London
''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide.
In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' rated the film 5/5 stars and compared it to the work of Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows (born 26 December 1972) is an English director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work in independent film, most notably the cult film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its three sequels (2010–2015).
Meadows' other films inc ...
. Huddleston called the film "nerve-shreddingly effective" and predicted the film would top rankings of British films.
''Kill List'' also received positive reviews in America. John DeFore of ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called it a "deeply edgy, gory crime film hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
maintains perfectly calibrated tension before dropping a bombshell that will be too much for some viewers". Andrew Barker of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it an "artful, sensitively acted thriller". Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
rated it 3/4 stars and called it "baffling and goofy, blood-soaked and not boring". David Harley of Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
rated it 4/5 stars and called it "an atmospheric delight, boasting incredibly intense performances by Maskell and Smiley, and a doozy of an ending that will unhinge even the most hardened of genre fans". Writing for Dread Central
Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
, Jason Jenkins rated the film 4.5/5 stars and placed the film on his personal top ten list of the year, while Gareth Jones rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it "an impeccably crafted thriller" that is frustrating for its lack of answers. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the plot "undercooked and a little baffling" but wrote, " en the plot doglegs into insanity, and the characters follow suit, this brutal fever dream refuses to fall apart".
Owen Gleiberman of ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' rated it C and negatively compared it to its influences. Scott Tobias of NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
compared it to ''Lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'' tendency to set up mysteries and leave them unexplained.
In 2015, the film was included in ''The Guardian''s top 50 films of the demi-decade.
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
listed it number 18 in their 25 Best Horror Movies Since The Year 2000.
Awards
''Kill List'' received a number of nominations in the 2011 British Independent Film Awards and went on to win one:
* Won: " Best Supporting Actor" for Michael Smiley
* Nominated: "Best Achievement in Production"
* Nominated: " Best Actor" for Neil Maskell
* Nominated: "Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
" for MyAnna Buring
* Nominated: "Best Director" for Ben Wheatley
* Nominated: "Best Screenplay" for Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump
* Nominated: "London Critics Circle Film Awards
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally.
The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of the ...
" for British Film of the Year
*Nominated: "London Critics Circle Film Awards
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally.
The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards did not convey the full context of the ...
" Supporting Actor of the Year for Michael Smiley
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kill List
2011 films
2011 horror films
2011 crime thriller films
2011 horror thriller films
2011 independent films
British crime films
British crime thriller films
British horror thriller films
Crime horror films
Folk horror films
British independent films
Swedish-language films
Films about contract killing in the United Kingdom
Films shot in South Yorkshire
Films directed by Ben Wheatley
Film4 Productions films
2010s psychological horror films
2010s English-language films
2010s British films