5. Kill List (2011)
Crime Thriller to Horror Before Ben Wheatley built up our expectations only to dash them on the rocks with last year's
Sightseers, he was responsible for one of the boldest and most brutal British films in recent years.
Kill List is one of those pictures that will stay with you- whether you like it or not. Jay (Neil Maskell) and Gal (Michael Smiley) are former soldiers who have fallen on hard times. And so when Gal tells Jay about an upcoming job, he snaps at the chance of earning a bit of extra cash at the side. This job, however, requires them to act as hitmen; working through a list of three names for a client who could just as easily have them both killed at the click of his fingers. But these are not the hired guns of a Guy Ritchie film.There's no breezy braggadocio or glamorizing gun culture here. Instead, the life of a contract killer is presented as both the least and most natural thing in the world. We'll skip the gory details for now, but suffice it to say that the first two names don't pose much of a problem. But it's their third assignment that marks a significant turning point; for both our characters and the tone of the film. As Jay and Gal prepare for a night in the woods, they find themselves involved in something much more disturbing than either they or we could ever have imagined. A cult, a ceremony, a human sacrifice...suddenly, we're in
The Wicker Man territory. And then, a fourth name appears on the list. By all means, hunt this film down. Just don't say you weren't warned.