KILL LIST (2011) - Ben Wheatley Retrospective

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The next step in my retrospective of British horror director Ben Wheatley's career is the 2011 film, KILL LIST.  George Ghon reviewed the movie for this blog, but this was my first time watching the movie, and boy was I in for a shock.  

As with DOWN TERRACE, the first part of the movie is a quiet, unsettling take on modern suburbia, with snatches of violence occasionally visible beneath the cracks.  We meet Jay (Neil Maskell), a British war veteran back from what was obviously some kind of mission gone berserk in Kiev.  Jay clearly loves his wife and young son, but he's also clearly got some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, compounded by his wife putting pressure on him to make some money. She leads him explicitly back into partnership with another ex-soldier called Gal (Michael Smiley) who brings him into the world of contract killing.  

What I love about this first act is that with Laurie Rose's handheld shooting style and Robin Hill's almost art-house Mallickian editing, combining voice-over or dialogue with a shot of a contemplative character, we get a real sense of intimacy with the family. I also love the foreshadowing - the idea that play-violence is everywhere - roughing up on the lawn, playing with toy swords - but that the real thing is just around the corner.  That said,  at this stage of the film I thought the hints of cult behaviour were a bit cheesy - viz Gal's weird girlfriend scratching a cult symbol on the back of Jay's mirror and stuffing his blood-stained tissue into her bra.  That seemed to me less scary than just embarrassing.

In the second act we see Jay and Gal embark on their kill list, and as with DOWN TERRACE, the movie strikes an uneasy comedy-horror tone as their deadpan nonsense banter is interspersed with acts of violence that go from being off-screen and subtly hinted at to more and more explicit. Even worse is the genuinely disturbing feeling that the victims actually want to be killed. This, for me, is where the movie really kicks into gear, just as Jay starts to unravel and we get hints of what may have gone wrong in Kiev.  As for the third act, well, I can't reveal too much or else spoil it for you, but suffice to say that it goes batshit crazy in the best way, with cultish violence, third-act reveals of who's pulling the strings.  But for a more spoiler-ish discussion of its textured and provocative denouement, feel free to stay listening to the podcast after the show-notes!

KILL LIST played the festival circuit in 2011 including SXSW, Frightfest and Toronto.  It was released that year in the UK and Ireland, and the following year in the USA.

KILL LIST has a running time of 95 minutes and was rated 18 in the UK  for strong violence and language. It is available to rent and own.

DOWN TERRACE

With the release of A FIELD IN ENGLAND, I decided to review the work of British writer-director Ben Wheatley, charting his move from well-crafted but fundamentally straightforward character dramas to surreal, obscure horror.  His first feature was the low-budget gangster drama, DOWN TERRACE, which garnered acclaim on the festival circuit but got only a small release in the US and UK in 2010. 

The movie follows a small-town British family for a fortnight after the mobbed-up father and son, Bill and Karl, are released from prison.  The first half of the film feels a bit like The Sopranos, as mid-ranking criminals are deadpan funny in their petty arguments about banal everyday problems, contrasting with their high-crime professional lives.  It's the kind of movie in which the assassin moans about having to babysit his toddler, and the long-suffering mother offers his little kid some orange squash while offering his father a selection of knives for his hit. And there's a scene at a bust stop that I hated myself for finding so funny. There's even a feckless son of a former friend who may or may not have grassed up the father - mirroring Tony's irritation with Chrisopher Moltisanti. 

Wheatley turns his small budget and limited shooting time into a virtue, creating a feeling of claustrophobia and slowly building tension as DP Laurie Rose shoots almost exclusively handheld in situ in a small terraced house.  The soundtrack is also effectively used as a commentary and a counter-point - beautiful blues music from Robert Johnson and folk music from Karen Dalton juxtaposing increasingly out-of-kilter violent scenes.  In front of the camera, we feel the menacing domineering presence of the paterfamilias, even when he's not on screen, and the relationship with his volatile son is brilliantly drawn - no doubt helped by the fact that most of the cast are related in real life.  But it's really Michael Smiley who steals the show as Pringle - the family's in-house toddler-toting assassin - and you can see why Wheatley chose to work with him in his subsequent movies. 

Overall, the movie is an assured and accomplished feature début that manages that truly difficult balance of dark humour and dark violence - combining an almost surreal descent into violent paranoia with some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. It deserves to be seen more widely. 

A podcast review of this film is available on iTunes, by subscribing here.
It can also be played directly, below. 

DOWN TERRACE played a few festivals in 2009  and 2010 and went on limited release in the UK and USA in 2010.  It is available to rent and own, including on iTunes.  The movie was rated R in the USA and 15 in the UK for strong violence, drug use and strong language including one use of very strong language. It has a running time of 89 minutes.