Despite the gruesome creatures, flying limbs and buckets of blood, horror as a genre can feel pretty stale. For every excellent film there is a dozen forgettable or terrible ones. And there are so many that it takes a lot of wading through the rubbish to get to the interesting stuff. For each day in October I’m going to recommend a different horror film or film about horror. For the most part they won’t be the accepted classics. My selections range from the genuinely excellent to the delightfully strange with a few that are more fascinating than they are great. Hopefully there will be something for everyone and you’ll find something new to give you a scare or maybe a laugh. This is my 31 days of Horror and today I’m talking about: Kill List.
Ben Wheatley is one of the most interesting British directors working today. He started with the dark gangster comedy Down Terrace then most recently made the excellent and surreal A Field in England (one of my favourites of the year so far). All of his films have been dark but none quite as sinister as his incredibly original horror film Kill List. Horror here is derived from the violent capabilities of man, intense dread and the unshakeable feeling that something is wrong. Then as the protagonist hits rock bottom things go off the rails into the completely horrifying.
Jay (Neil Maskell) is a hitman still reeling from a failed job about a year ago. As money gets tighter and his home life becomes more strained he decides to take on a new assignment. He’s hired to kill three men and takes his old partner Gal (Michael Smiley) along. Things are going well enough but there’s something strange about these killings. With each kill Jay’s mental state is worsening, but it’s unclear if he’s stepping into darkness or it’s closing in on him.
Violence is often simply a shock tactic in a lot of horror films. Filmmakers are always trying to escalate violence in film to new extremes to out-do the films that have come before. But what a lot of them seem to forget is that the presentation of that violence is much more important than what’s being presented. Violence without purpose can just feel gratuitous. Films have shown me some ludicrously disgusting things but few of them are as impactful as the violence in Kill List. Not only does it present violence in a realistically visceral way, it actually uses it to enhance the ideas of the film. Jay’s psychological descent is directly proportional to the violence he propagates. Violence itself plays as big a part in his increasing agitation, anger and depression. Their first kill is bloody but simple, and then the next one is viciously messier. He seems to hope that he will find catharsis through violence but it just pulls him deeper into the void. Wheatley doesn’t really linger on the brutality nor does he seem to revel in it. We are shown these acts as they would happen and that’s what makes them so scary. A man being struck by a hammer has a sickening thud to it that sounds chillingly real. What we see is so horrible that Jay’s ability to deal it out makes his mindset so troubling. It bothers me when films portray violence as something that’s clean and simple (i.e. action films that show guns as basically “make bad guys fall down” triggers). Here every violent act is appropriately messy and disturbing. What is scary is how easily it comes to Jay.
Early on in the film it appears to be a grittier-than-most family drama about the psychological impact killing has had on this man. The instigating act that fully brings it into horror is when a visitor to Jay’s home carves an odd symbol on the back of his mirror. It’s a small moment of strangeness but it lets you know early on that something is terribly wrong. That off-ness permeates throughout the film. Some scenes of Jay getting increasingly agitated will have a low drone playing on the soundtrack. It’s a uniquely disquieting thing also seen in films like Mulholland Drive and Irreversible. That low rumble offers an insight into his current mindset. His anger is ever present through that sound. We feel his growing rage and fear as much as we see it. In seemingly innocuous scenes we will hear it and know that Jay is about to burst. Something is channelling him further into the abyss and the excellent music is a constant reminder. Contract’s thanks Jay before being killed, a woman is seen looking into his hotel window and even when such curious things are not happening we are painfully aware that something is wrong. From the more overtly peculiar moments to the quiet character interactions we feel Jay being pulled towards something, but what that could be is alarmingly unknown.
It can be an enigmatic film but Wheatley gives us enough information to put it all together. Even some of the most unassuming moments early on will be paid off by the climax. Obviously I’m stepping around spoilers but it is a film worth experiencing as freshly as possible. More often than not he communicates what we need to know through the visuals. Each image is telling us something and it foreshadows later developments in some devilish ways. The dialogue is great too, Jay and Gal in particular become very well defined by the end. That’s helped by Maskell and Smiley’s performances. Smiley manages to make a hired killer sympathetic and Maskell’s bubbling rage is palpable. The script manages to even throw in a couple moments of dark comedy despite the overarching bleakness of it all. Basically every aspect of the film builds on the story and the themes the film is exploring.
Kill List is not a very conventional horror film. Until the third act most of the horror is derived from the building of Jay’s psychotic nature. Even though it goes to some far-out places the horror always feels real. It’s very reminiscent of a few 70’s horror films with deliberate and tense build-ups. This connection to the past even plays into Jay’s struggle with his past. The inescapable dread felt throughout is paid off marvellously in one of the most memorably shocking moments. It does not follow the same beats as most horror flicks and that just aids in making it as unsettling as it is. Outwith the horror aspects it’s also just an excellent film about the impact of violence on the mind. Wonderfully shot, achingly creepy and incredibly unique. This is probably one of my favourite horror films in recent years and one I think that needs to be seem.
James M Macleod
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