Jay (Neil Maskell) has been out of work for eight months when his wife (Myanna Burning) and his friend/ partner Gal (Michael Smiley) convince him to take a job at what he does best.  Jay and Gal are hired to kill people on a list and each person thanks them before they are dispatched.  Director Ben Wheatley creates a movie that starts out with a man stuck in a rut which switches to a hitman movie before slowly transforming into a 1970s British horror movie like THE WICKER MAN or a Hammer horror film.   KILL LIST didn’t catch my eye at first when watching it.  It kinda crept up on me as I watched it.   It left little hints to where it was going and KILL LIST is one of the more impressive films I have seen in a while.  It is the film that THE WICKER TREE failed to be.  It is an unsettling film that will stay with you after it is over.    It defies genre conventions as it combines mystery with horror as it builds a character study of Val as everything starts to unravel during the job he and Gal were hired to do.  I don’t want to give much away about it because I want the viewer to discover this hidden gem for themselves. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with Director Ben Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump

Audio commentary with Actors Neil Maskell, Myanna Burning, and Michael Smiley

Interviews with Ben Wheatley, producers Claire Jones and Andy Starke, and actors Neil Maskell and Myanna Burning.  The interviews are worth watching and they provide a good shorthand for those who don’t have the time to listen to the two audio commentaries.  I do wish they combined the interviews with the making-of featurette which consists of behind-the-scenes production music set to music.

Quick two minute promo fluff featurtte and a theatrical trailer round out the extras.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  KILL LIST is a horror movie that will stay with you.  Go rent it now.

This review is (c)9-11-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com