Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into... Read allNearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 18 nominations
- Shel
- (as Myanna Buring)
- Hotel Waitress
- (as Zoe Thomas)
- High Priest
- (as Bob Hill)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaShel's phone-call (in Swedish) was entirely improvised by MyAnna Buring. The filmmakers had no idea what she said until much later.
- GoofsIn one of the scenes where the Jay, Shel, Gal and Fiona are drinking, there is a close up of a wine bottle and some glasses. The bottle says it is a pinot grigio, but the wine in the glasses is red and they are only ever shown drinking red wine.
- Quotes
Gal: Come on, mate. Let's get you to bed. Don't pay any attention to them, they are just over-excited.
Sam: Why?
Gal: Because they have been drinking, all right? Don't you ever drink, do you hear me? Promise?
Sam: Not even water?
Gal: Especially not that shit. Do you know the government puts stuff in it that shrinks your balls?
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Brutal Movie Beatings (2014)
- SoundtracksIt Could Have Been Better
Written by Joan Armatrading and Pam Nestor
Published by Onward Music Ltd./Bucks Music Group Ltd.
Courtesy of Tuesday Productions Ltd./Onward Music Ltd.
For the most part, KILL LIST works. It unsettles and creeps you out courtesy of lots of foreboding, ominous sequences (accompanied by music which is a little too overdone at times) punctuated by moments of stark and shocking violence. Writer/director Ben Wheatley does good to build the sense of mystery, keeping his character backgrounds shady and throwing in random clues that make little sense at the time but help build towards the feeling of something big as the climax approaches. It's also one of the nastiest mainstream films I've seen in a while, with one scene involving a hammer taking screen violence to a whole new level.
Sad, then, that the ending of this film is such a disappointment, an ambiguous tie-up that seems shoehorned in purely to provide a few more exploitative shocks instead of making any kind of sense whatsoever. The mystery is left just that, a mystery, and at times I was infuriated at the lack of resolution. The film also veers away from the modern day realism it has built beforehand to hark back to the Hammer Horror days of yesteryear. Not that I have a problem with Hammer films – I love them, but in their own time and quaint-ish setting. The all-too-familiar horror tropes of the climax just feel overdone, coincidentally almost exactly the same problem I had with another recent watch, THE LAST EXORCISM.
The cast acquit themselves well with the script, for the most part, and there's a level of kitchen sink-style authenticity to much of the dialogue; also some natural, unforced humour which offsets all the nastiness. Neil Maskell is very good when his lead character is asked to do the more disturbing things, although I never quite bought him as the family man he's shown to be at the outset. Michael Smiley is equally as good as Maskell's buddy and colleague, and the film's central pairing works very well indeed. Original British horror cinema, with life and style all of its own (not merely following Hollywood trends), has stalled somewhat in the last decade, but with the likes of KILL LIST we could be in for something of a renaissance
- Leofwine_draca
- Nov 16, 2012
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Danh Sách Tử Thần
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $29,063
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,838
- Feb 5, 2012
- Gross worldwide
- $452,155
- Runtime1 hour 35 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1