3) Kill List

Kill List poses a serious moral dilemma.

To deter you away from it would be a crime against British cinema; but to advise you to see it might be a crime against humanity. To whisper the movie’s twists to you would be the righteous and reasonable thing to do; but to unravel the plot for you would be to spoil the surprise.

For all its qualities, there’s no doubting that Ben Wheatley’s film is a nasty piece of work. It’s like a puzzle made of razor blades; cutting you deeper with each piece of the plot that you attempt to put together. Starting off as a south England drama with rumblings of dark discontent beneath its surface, the movie then kicks into a ruthless crime spree, before maliciously morphing into terrifying horror.

Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley (two superb British actors whose other work is worth checking out) star as two old soldier friends who take up a contract killing job back in the UK; a task that eventually sends them descending into a nightmarish pit of despair and horror. Director Wheatley shoots the whole film on a gritty, visceral level, and provides a grotesque surrealism to a film that otherwise feels disturbingly authentic.

Kill List‘s plot doesn’t so much rack your brain as haunt it, and Wheatley deliberately leaves a whole bunch of bloody threads dangling to creep out viewers long after the movie is over. The director’s wickedness is revelealed in the way he keeps the cards of Kill List so close to his chest. To try to make sense of everything is as fruitless as it is painful, and the more you think about the movie, the darker it becomes.

Kill List comes highly recommended with a big red warning sticker. Hopefully this way you get to see a good movie, and we can still remain friends.