This film starts out with Jay (Neil Maskell) and his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) having arguments about money, typical family dynamics. But Jay and his wife aren't typical people. Jay is a former hit man who, with his friend and partner Gal (Michael Smiley), botched a job several months earlier.
Shel has a dinner party where we meet Jay's partner Gal and his girlfriend Fiona (Emma Fryer). Jay loses it during the dinner, pulling everything off the table. Stress is clearly getting to Jay which leads him to get back into the hit man game for the money.
Gal and Jay set off to do their job, the first hit goes as planned. However, the next hit turns Jay into a psychotic killer (instead of just a regular killer). Jay completely plummets their victim with a hammer. Gal is concerned, but money is money and he wants to get the job done.
The next job is a rich man who lives in a huge house with beautiful surroundings of flora and fauna for the two killers to hide in. Soon this heretofore thriller turns into pure horror.
The film starts off a bit slow. Director Ben Wheatley ('Down Terrace'), directing his second film, wants his audience to make sure they know these characters. The characters are actually completely different people than how they are portrayed in this part of the film.
With a distinct feeling of an 80s horror film, mostly in the last twenty minutes, 'Kill List' is a film for the viewer who likes to be surprised. They're aren't very many viewers that will guess what's coming at the end and that is what makes 'Kill List' worth seeing.
'Kill List' did the big festival circuit last year playing at such festivals as; SXSW, Toronto International, and AFI. The film took home the Best European Movie prize at the Sitges Film Festival.
'Kill List' opens this Friday at theaters and is already available on VOD.
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