10 Weird Movie Plot Twists That Just Don't Work
8. The Whole Religious Cult Thing - Kill List
The Set-Up: Semi-retired hitman Jay (Neil Maskell) is lured back on the job with his old friend Gal (Michael Smiley) for a lucrative contract taking out three seemingly unrelated individuals for a shadowy organisation.
The Twist: after some strange, unnerving circumstances earlier in the job, things get utterly bizarre when the final mark on the list leads Jay and Gal to some sort of occult ceremony. This ultimately sees Jay forcibly masked and thrown into a ritualistic knife fight with a masked hunchback - but once he wins the fight, his fatally wounded opponent is uncloaked to reveal his own wife Shel (MyAnna Burning) with their son strapped to her back.
Why It Doesn't Work: It's one thing for a film to take a left-field turn late in the day, but there has to be some sort of internal logic to proceedings. Kill List, however, comes off as if it was all made up on the spot. The cult and their motivations make no sense whatsoever.
Particularly nonsensical is how the dying Shel appears to be in on the cult's business, laughing as she dies. Why, then, did she open fire on attacking cult members earlier on, when Jay wasn't even present?