‘They are bad people. They should suffer...’
It’s very rare for a film to start off as one thing and end up as something else entirely. I’m not talking about a tonal shift. I’m talking about a film that starts off in one genre and ends in up in another. Probably the most prominent example of this is From Dusk Till Dawn. Robert Rodriguez 90s classic begins as a straight forward Tarantino-tinged crime thriller and turns on a dime halfway through to become a vampire flick. It’s the film’s astonishing audacity that renders it so effective. It’s a tough balancing act to pull off which is perhaps why other examples of this conceit are so rare. Well, Kill List delivers a similar rug pull to the audience and it does so in a way that is both shocking and visceral…
Jay (Neil Maskell) is a hitman suffering a crisis of confidence following a botched job in Kiev (referenced but never fully explored). After eight months out of the game and with bills piling up, Jay’s old army pal Gal (Michael Smiley) arrives with an opportunity that could make both of them a lot of money. The unnamed client (menacingly played by Struan Rodger) supplies Jay and Gal with the eponymous kill list (three names – no other details) and serves as the catalyst for a chain of events that will take Jay to the very heart of darkness.
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As with From Dusk Till Dawn, Ben Wheatley’s Kill List starts as a gangster film but distorts into something else during the show-stopping third act. No vampires this time. Instead, Wheatley evokes The Wicker Man and Suspiria to create something genuinely unique. The trippy folk horror freak out that concludes this film is jaw-dropping on first viewing and just as effective when returning to the film after a long absence as I did on this occasion. The British director demands the viewer’s attention with the numerous scenes of graphic violence (all of which are central to the plot) and then offers up a conclusion that recontextualises everything that has come before. This ensures that Kill List is able to get under your skin despite the lo-fi video quality. Indeed, this documentary shooting style makes the violence even more shocking, more authentic.
Maskell and Smiley are old hands now at portraying violent maniacs but there is a nuance to their performances here, a hinted at familiarity, a closeness deriving from shared experience that seems to both unite Jay and Gal but also make them wary of each other. Wheatley is careful never to spell anything out. Instead, he drops clues about things that might be happening and allows the viewer to sit with them for a moment before moving on to something else. On that note, this is a propulsive script, with plenty of action packed into the skinny 95-minute running time. The plot clips along but we are still given time to dwell on Jay with close ups and shots that linger just a little too long on the blankness behind his eyes.
Kill List is a filmed packed with suspense and tension which does a sterling job in mashing together the old-fashioned British crime thriller and the folk horror of the 60s and 70s. It’s just a shame that Wheatley never really sang a song as dark and dangerous as this one again.