Title: Kill List
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson, Michael Smiley, Emma Fryer
There has to be a storytelling flaw here. Kill List had a decent amount of intense sequences but you kind of get the feeling that you should be more into this while watching the 95 minutes unravel. And unravel is the proper term for this British flick.
What starts out as an awkward, yet train wreck interesting, dinner party between two couples; quickly morphs into a hitman chronicle that flows into a battle with the occult. How and why is never truly addressed at either transition point, yet the curiosity levels remain high. The one element that can get annoying is trying to understand the fast-mumbling dialect our two killer leads enact. One minute they’re having an emotionless conversation and then they’re at each other’s throats. And if you give these guys the eye test, they do not scream professional contract killer, as this is obviously a back alley job, as seen during the negotiations if you will.
The big issue in the screenplay is the lack of knowledge. Granted, the audience will get some background in the opening 15-20 minutes dinner party segment that sets the mood and mind-frame of the characters. Immediately after that though, these two borderline losers – who over-achieved in the girlfriend department – are all of a sudden involved in some contract killing assignment that is clearly shady, yet doesn’t faze them. They’re not aloof to the situation, they just don’t seem to care; which makes no sense when factoring how this all concludes.
Without giving too much away, the one storytelling guideline to adhere to is: don’t ripoff a poor movie’s ending (or multiple ones in this case, from cinemas past (can’t say them or it will spoil it). Even with this screenplay jumping through genres in a haphazard fashion, the rationale of what is happening is never addressed. The performers look as if they do not have a clue know what is going as well. It’s as if the filmmakers said, “This would be cool to do. And, action!”
Overall, Kill List is able to score a few positive checks in some well-crafted sequences, but in the end, the one thing holding this down is a simple “Why?” Why is any of this happening and why should we care? Going with a freestyle screenplay can be cool, yet even these need some type of structure.
Technical: C+
Story: F
Acting: C
Overall: D
By Joe Belcastro – Member of the Florida Film Critics Circle
