• Summary: Eight months after a botched job in Kiev, Jay is an out-of-work hit man with no job, money, health insurance and a wife constantly on his case. But when his business partner Gal comes over for dinner and pressures Jay into taking a new assignment, Jay quickly finds himself back in the game with the promise of a big payoff after three assassinations. Although the hits start off without incident, soon things begin to unravel and Jay's paranoia reveals itself as he is plunged into the heart of darkness. (IFC Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 22
  2. Negative: 3 out of 22
  1. Reviewed by: Todd Gilchrist
    Jan 29, 2012
    100
    Kill List is a major breakthrough for writer/director Ben Wheatley, whose assured and painstaking handling of this difficult material makes for an unforgettable viewing experience.
  2. Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    Feb 6, 2012
    60
    Following up his acclaimed debut feature "Down Terrace," a gangster drama that also mixed genre shocks with dark comedy and explosive family spats, Wheatley gives Kill List a discordant tone that makes it feel like a horror film even when it isn't.
  3. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Feb 3, 2012
    38
    Banal at the beginning and preposterous at the close, the British horror film Kill List jumbles together wildly incongruous ingredients to create a dramatic mush.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. i haven't seen a film like this since Mulholland Dr., a really well made film. the acting, directing and writing is great. but what stood out the most was the tone and atmosphere of the film, this i think is a prime example of a "psychological thriller/horror". i really loved how the film started out as a thriller/action and then evolved into a thriller horror. and what a horror it was, i can't remember the last time i was this scared watching a film (i think its mainly because of the weirdness of it all). but the main question i think most of you will have is what was it all about. was it a dream or was it reality? that's the best explanation i've read of this film and the director has said that many of the thing in the movie were taken from his nightmares. there are a lot of reoccurring images that occur throughout the film. ex. in the beginning Jay is seen "play fighting" with his wife and child, Sam is on his mother's back (just like in the end of the film), they are using fake swords (in the end they use knives) and Jay "kills" them (just like in the end of the film). another ex. the rabbit that the cats kills has it's guts coming out and when the cat is killed Gal says that he always loved the cat (in the tunnel seen Gal is stabbed ans his guts are spilling out just like the rabbits). and finally at different parts of the you hear someone saying "wake up" to Sam. the only problem i have with this is that you don't know where the dream stars and where it ends. it should be noted that the director has said that "shes [Shel] laughing at sheer crushing irony of it all", if that helps at all. so apart of the ambiguity of it all, it really is a great film. it's one of those movies that you need to watch more than once to fully understand it. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. In Ben Wheatley's horror-thriller, two hit men go on a traumatic and soft objective into the occult. It's so extreme that some will look away. If you're a hit man by business, then you've already created a cope with the demon, even if those you remove tumble into the type of people spend of the drug-dealing, kidnapping, warmongering type. So really, it should come as no shock that Jay and Gal, the eliminating blokes in the draped horror-thriller "Kill Record," have gotten themselves into a unusual fix, though having to close a agreement in our blood should have been a tip-off. The revealing if not exactly fulfilling night that penetrates into every part of this newest English transfer from movie maker Ben Wheatley requires it is time getting to the serious evildoing that the movie director and his co-writer, Amy Leap, have in thoughts, however. Instead, it starts with a shouting go with between Jay (Neil Maskell) and his spouse, Shel (MyAnna Buring). After botching a job, Jay has been out of perform for several weeks, charges and stress are flipping up, all of which Shel sits out with agonizing invective. To which Jay replies in type. That units the level and the overall tone for this grown-up home of disasters. His old associate Gal (Michael Smiley) wants him to consider one last job together. He does, but there is a cost. It includes three visits, with Jay progressively more unhinged, each get rid of more chaotic than the last. Gal is incapable to control him in; their justifications about what is and isn't appropriate when it comes to eliminating still won't make you for what's on display. This is a far more extreme movie than Wheatley's first, 2009's "Down Rooftop." Though it had criminal offense at its middle as well, it was sensible by a dry paradox and far less our blood. There is no counteract in "Kill Record," with one world so constant in its gore that it creates the infamous lift world in "Drive" light in evaluation. What "Kill List" and "Down Terrace" discuss is Wheatley's really like of heavy planning, though like Jay, you wish someone would sometimes control him in too. His are testimonies that need interest and usually compensate, losing enticing parts along the way, then conclusion with a hit. Now Wheatley is enthusiastic about the heart and how it can be damaged and co-opted. Black products, but it gives the characters a lot to perform with. Maskell and Buring confirm the best couple, warm as they simple the love-hate of a plagued wedding. And viewing Maskell change from a type of Wally Mitty of hit men to gigantic is, I have to confess, interesting. The street here brings Gal and Jay toward the occult. Associates and guests keep flipping up in unanticipated methods, and the unusual ritualistic methods that include demon praise begin materializing. Including to the common unease is the gritty, documented look obtained by movie director of photography Laurie Increased, who taken "Down Terrace" as well. The camera is unflinching, and so is Wheatley, as the tale goes toward the impossible. It's eventually left to you when and whether to look away. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. I had only heard good things about the Kill List, so going into it I was expecting something fairly amazing. The basic premise is that an out-of-work, ex-soldier hitman who screwed up his last job gets a final chance to prove himself. The basic difference between this and many other films with similar premises is that he has a wife, a son, and a best friend, also a hitman, who is there to make sure he doesn't screw it up. First, while I don't usually have much problem understanding British movies, I couldn't understand much of the dialogue in the opening scenes and had to rely on what I'd read about the plot to replace what I can only imagine was backstory. When the action started, I began to enjoy watching the main character begin to lose his composure as the mysteries of this job unfolded. I was along for the ride until the very end. I had expected some closure, some explanation of the weirdness the climax had built up to, but instead there was merely a shock and then it was over. I still have no idea why most of the events occurred or what the motivations were of those standing in the background pulling strings. I am still scratching my head at all of the positive reviews out there, many of which echo my confusion. For some reason, they're simply not that concerned about it, but for me it ruined what might have otherwise been a unique and enjoyable thriller. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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