Special Features:

• Commentary with Director Ben Wheatley and Writer Amy Jump
• Commentary with actors Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley
• Making of Kill List
• Interviews with Ben Wheatley, Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and producers Claire Jones and Andrew Starks
• Trailer

Cast

Neil Maskell

MyAnna Burling

Harry Simpson

Michael Smiley

Emma Fryer

Struan Rodger

Robin Hill

Mark Kempner

James Nickerson

Trailer

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When it comes to reviewing discs, there are big titles which you can't wait to request, watch and review, others which arrived unannounced and you prioritise depending on your workload and the titles themselves and others which you request out of curiosity. Kill List fits neatly into the latter category as I liked the overview and thought it would make for interesting viewing. At the time, I didn't recognise the director, Ben Wheatley, as having made anything I'd have heard of or seen but, a little later, the penny dropped and I remembered he wrote and directed the brilliantly slow burning British gangster drama Down Terrace.

 

With Kill List, co-written by his wife, Amy Jump, Wheatley is on familiar ground as this is also a modestly budgeted British gangster movie, heavy on characterisation but, like Down Terrace, intricately plotted with an ending which demands repeated viewings.

 

Set in an unnamed part of southern England, the film follows Jay, a former soldier, in a tempestuous marriage to Shel, a headstrong Swede who voluntarily did a spell in the Swedish army, and is struggling to come to terms with a botched assassination job in Kiev eight months previously. Jay's best friend is Gal, a hard and no-nonsense Irishman who is Jay's liaison with the criminal underworld and comes to Jay with prospective jobs.

 

During a dinner party with Gal and his new girlfriend Fiona, tempers fly when discussion turns to contemporary war and Jay flips over his dinner plate and goes to the garage for a cigarette. A short time later, Gal joins him and informs Jay about some work: a list with three people here need 'despatching'. After showing his friend a rather impressive firearm which Shel, clearly not only aware, but supportive of Jay's occupation, Jay agrees to take the job.

 

With their young son, Sam, asleep in bed – Gal having taken him upstairs and settled him down whilst his parents were arguing – Jay and Shel make-up and spend some time together in the garden whilst Gal and Fiona drunkenly fool around on the lawn. Unbeknownst to everyone, during the meal, Fiona had gone to the bathroom and etched a strange rune on the back of the mirror, but appears to be perfectly normal and is getting on very well with Gal who, when visited by Jay the next morning, is a little worse for wear but still able to concentrate on the job ahead and turn his attention to the first target: The Priest.

 

This isn't a film where Jay and Gal deal with their 'clients' from a great distance using a high-powered rifle but, with Jay's temper threatening to completely destabilise him, matters are dealt with in an 'up close and personal' manner and, though The Priest is dealt with in a relatively bloodless fashion, the same can't be said for the next on the list, The Librarian. Before going to his house, the two hitmen – led by Jay – break into his lock-up and discover something which sickens them both and results in a hit which, rather than being quick and easy, is prolonged as Jay chooses a hammer as his weapon of choice.

 

There are some cryptic utterances from Jay's victims, such as The Librarian thanking him whilst the horrendous beating is being delivered, something which doesn't resonate with Jay due to his uncontrollable anger but, with his slightly peculiar 'employers', who threatened to kill his family if he doesn't complete his job, indicates something strange is afoot, which won't be fully revealed until the very end.

 

One of the more intriguing aspects of films featuring an assassin is your whole moral compass is manipulated so you side with the hitman/hitmen, wanting them to succeed even though they are hired killers. In Kill List, you realise the people Jay has been contracted to kill are horrible people so, despite his almost uncontrollable anger and brutality, you don't want Jay to be caught by the police or do anything which would jeopardise his family's safety, willing him on as he and Gal trying to uncover the truth about their 'mission'.

 

However, before they get to the bottom of things, the third person on their list, The MP, proves to be the strangest one yet, with what appears to be a pagan ritual with a procession of naked worshippers and other masked followers carrying burning torches. As it now becomes clear events have taken a turn for the weirder, you wonder who is really in control and what the two contract killers will do to ensure every name on their titular list can be crossed out and stay safe.

 

There aren't many 'classic' British films about assassins, with the most renowned titles including Le Samouraï, The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Luc Besson's Leon. Sadly, even though they are quality films, neither Down Terrace nor Kill List will make many Top 10 lists given their relative obscurity and 'homely' feel. Like Down Terrace, this is rooted in the home environment and with family at the forefront -- Jay's fury at The Librarian is no doubt due to him being married with a son.

 

Structurally, it is dissimilar from any other genre film I've seen as it is broken into sections with intertitles appearing saying THE PRIEST, THE LIBRARIAN and THE MP so you know who the victim of that section will be before events really get underway. I found this to work extremely well and add to the episodic nature of the work Jay and Gal have undertaken, dealing with one person at a time and never thinking ahead. It is extremely well paced, slow and deliberate when it needs to be and with a much higher tempo during other sections.

 

The main performances, by Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley and MyAnna Buring are remarkably good, with Maskell looking like someone with an army background who can barely keep his temper under control, whereas Smiley's Gal is much more measured and a great calming influence on his old friend. Buring, who surprisingly hasn't done much since her superb performance in Neil Marshall's The Descent, shows herself to be an actress with a great deal of talent and there is even occasion for her Swedish roots to come in useful! It's interesting to note the credits say written by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump, with additional dialogue by 'the cast', so Wheatley obviously let the actors improvise and ad lib, helping everything to flow naturally and appear as realistic as possible.

 

Overall, I enjoyed Kill List very much and had no problems watching it through a couple of times and then with the commentaries, picking up on things quicker each time, so it is definitely a film which lends itself to repeated viewings if you want to get the most from Ben Wheatley and, Amy Jump’s excellent screenplay.

The Disc

Extra Features

When the disc loads, you are given the option of choosing United Kingdom or Australia and, choosing the former, skippable trailers for Animal Kingdom, Our Day Will Come and Brighton Rock precede the main menu. If you select Australia, you find out this is a Madman release 'down under', with skippable trailers for The Loved Ones and Monsters. Aside from that, the menus and runtimes are identical.

 

In the Set Up menu, you'll find the two commentaries:

 

Commentary with Director Ben Wheatley and Writer Amy Jump is informative and well delivered by the husband and wife filmmaking team. They occasionally run out of things to say but then, rather than sit in silence, decide they have a commentary to deliver and so continue with information about the various scenes, talking about aspects of the script, performances, locations and other parts of the shoot. It's a pretty good commentary which sheds a lot of light on the filmmaking process and is worth your time.

 

Commentary with actors Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley is one of those where the actors sit together and seem to be quite comfortable complementing each other, other members of the cast and crew whilst laughing at their own (and other people's) performances. However, it is sometimes quite funny and, as there is some information to be gleaned, it's worth a listen.

 

Making of Kill List (7:37, HD) is separated into sections, Camera Tests and Filming, with the first one being only short and the second comprised of B-roll and behind the scenes footage. The piece has no narration and doesn't shed much light on how the film was made, so is a pretty worthless making.

 

Interviews brings up a submenu containing the following:

 

Ben Wheatley (6:27, HD) covers the origins of the film, the writing process and the casting.

 

Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring (10:23, HD) are interviewed together and talk about things including what drew them to the project, working with Ben Wheatley and their characters.

 

Claire Jones and Andrew Starks (7:41, HD) are the two producers and are also interviewed together (in the same room as Maskell and Buring, covering various subjects in the interviews such as the film's origins, discussing various plots with Ben Wheatley, the characters, casting, the actors and the challenges of combining extreme violence and black humour.

 

These interviews are really just EPK material, are much quieter than the other supplementary material and feature the interviewees by a Kill List poster, so were clearly made for publicity purposes.

 

Finally, you have the theatrical Trailer (1:47, HD), which does a great job of marketing the film with a good selection of quotes from reviewers and critics (from both online and print media).

 

As this is a Double Play release, it also comes with a DVD so you can watch it in a room other than that in which you have your Blu-ray player or buy it for when you have a Blu-ray player.

The Picture

Encoded at MPEG 4 AVC, the 1080p picture is very sharp, with deep contrast levels and strong, vibrant colours. Shot by someone with a keen visual eye and predominantly with earthy tones, Laurie Rose's cinematography really suits the characters and subject material.

 

Very little of the film takes place in daylight, with most scenes taking place inside with artificial lighting or in dimly lit (or not at all illuminated) exteriors. Fortunately, there is no drop in detail levels as the light levels drop and everything is very well lit, shot and frame so you don't miss out on anything important. There is a sequence near the end in a tunnel system, which is illuminated entirely by Jay and Gal's head torches, creating a sequence with extremely high claustrophobia.

 

The locations are all very well chosen, from the house they borrowed to be Jay and Shel's home, to The Librarian’s lock-up and The MP's country mansion, perfectly suiting the characters and tone. There is no big-name (such as KNB EFX Group) behind the special effects make-up, but the bloodshed and violence is extremely realistic and Jay's attack with a hammer is likely to have some people squirming and looking away from the screen.

The Sound

Given the choice of DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 stereo, I went with the former and sampled the latter, deciding to stick with the LPCM track as the film is predominantly frontloaded with very few scenes in which the rear surrounds come into play.

 

Everything is beautifully balanced, with the dialogue coming across clearly, the gunshots appropriately loud (apart from those shot from a gun with a silencer), the sound design and mixing really helps the assassination scenes as visceral as possible and the score is presented extremely well without any distortion or any one aspect interfering with another.

 

There is a really good score by Jim Williams (a man who aside from Down Terrace, has only done TV work) which never feels over the top, unwelcome or disproportionately loud and really emphasises the tone and mood and emotions, whilst helping with the tempo.

 

The optional English HoH subtitles are consistent with the dialogue and on-screen events, largely free from spelling or grammatical errors and, with the white font edged in black, are clear to see against all backgrounds.

Final Thoughts

There is a great deal to like about Kill List and it is one of the finest British thriller/horror films I've seen this year, marking Ben Wheatley as a filmmaker with a very bright future. It is an extremely well written film with assured direction, fine performances by the three leads and the entire supporting cast and some brutally effective set pieces.

 

Although the Making of is disappointing and the Interviews are only EPK material, the commentaries provide plenty of information and, combined with the excellent picture and sound quality, makes this set worth a blind buy for all horror fans.