What's it about? While struggling to come to terms with an operation gone wrong in Kiev, Jay (Neil Maskell) is talked into a job by his former army colleague Gal (Michael Smiley) in which they must assassinate three people for a shadowy client. After killing a priest and another man known as the "librarian" who has been cataloguing child porn and snuff movies, they set out to kill their final target - the politician. How does it end? Setting up camp and waiting until nightfall so they can take out the politician, a string of torches suddenly appear in the distance. As the hit men investigate an occult sacrificial ritual is revealed, set up by the cult for the benefit of Jay and pitting him against a most unexpected opponent in which he is forced into a knife fight with a "hunchback". Why was it controversial? The sudden shift from an admittedly very dark thriller into all-out horror territory as the cult reveals itself to the protagonists was considered too jarring and out of place by some critics and audiences. Some horror fans absolutely loved this "twist" ending (I count myself amongst them - director Ben Wheatley handles the genre-hopping very well), but for others the revelation of occultism was frustrating "hocus pocus".
