In the Woods
Having not worked for months Jay (Neil Maskell) and his Scandinavian wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) are at each other's throats as he can't get out of the funk he is in. That is until his old army buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) and his mysterious girlfriend Fiona (Emma Fryer) come around for dinner and Gal persuades to come back on the job with him. The job in question is a series of killings for various mysterious men but Jay becomes increasingly paranoid as they go about their business.
What I realised the last time I watched a Ben Wheatley movie is that he is an acquired taste and even those movie he has directed I enjoyed had things about them which didn't work for me. It is the same with "Kill List" as this is another Ben Wheatley movie which requires the audience to be open to the unpredictable, the non mainstream and to go with it in the belief that there will be a pay off come the end even if it makes little sense to start with. Unfortunately I am not that in to Ben Wheatley's style of movie making that I could have faith it would come good.
The thing is that "Kill List" seems a little weird, it starts off on this domestic footing with a look at the troubled marriage of Jay and Shel as his inability to work is getting to her and it is good. But then we get a scene thrown in where Fiona scratches a strange symbol on the back of their bathroom mirror. It's peculiar but then is what follows as Jay and Gal do a series of hits with Jay getting increasingly violent when it comes to the killings and it is extremely graphic in nature, more graphic than you might expect. And you think that it is not very connected but that is nothing compared to what comes after that as the story takes a paranormal turn and you think what the heck is going on.
What this means is that "Kill List" is a bit like Marmite, you are going to either love its weirdness or you going hate it. And that is a sad thing as the acting is actually really good with both Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley holding nothing back which ends up more entertaining than the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Kill List" was one of Ben Wheatley's movies which didn't work for me as it was too disjointed and weird. But for those who like disjointed and weird it may be right up their street.
