Kill List

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Kill List

Released Feb 3, 2012

1h 34m

Mystery & Thriller

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

78%

Tomatometer

97 Reviews

58%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Events take a darker turn as a contract killer (Neil Maskell) and his business partner (Michael Smiley) carry out a new assignment.

Critics Consensus

Kill List is an expertly executed slow-burn crime thriller that thrives on tension before morphing into visceral horror.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Wheatly aims for something like moral complexity by having one of the killers believe in God and the other aspire to be a good husband and father, but once the graphic violence starts, it upstages everything else.

Rated: 3/5

May 28, 2015

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Andrew Barker

Variety

Displaying both a nasty edge and a playful sense of humor -- but thankfully, never at the same time -- Brit import Kill List is several cuts above its fellow midbudget horror brethren.

Jan 8, 2013

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John DeFore

The Hollywood Reporter

Deeply edgy, gory crime film maintains perfectly calibrated tension before dropping a bombshell that will be too much for some viewers.

Jan 8, 2013

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Michael Leader

Den of Geek

Some may be frustrated by the coyness of the narrative, which prefers to leave integral storytelling threads up to the viewer’s imagination, but that is all part of the fun...

Rated: 4/5

May 7, 2024

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Justin Harrison

The Spool

Kill List is, by design, an extremely disturbing film.

Aug 8, 2023

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Brent McKnight

The Last Thing I See

An element of the occult, of some sinister, unknown outside force encroaching on the narrative, driving characters closer and closer to the brink of madness.

Rated: A

Jul 11, 2020

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Julian H

A superb genre-bending nightmare.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/10/25

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Camero W

Absolute rubbish. This movie sucked so bad I can’t even believe that let this hit media at all. Made absolutely no fucking sense and the acting, plot, music, cinematography, etc was awful. 0/10. Major waste of time.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

11/08/24

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Jay A

This movie was a complete surprise, shocking ending. Superb.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

10/29/24

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Christian K

This was kind of all over the place pacing and tone wise, it does feature one of the wildest final 20 minutes ever which was cool.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

10/01/24

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r96 s

Rubbi... Wait, people love this? Before I started my review, I decided to take a quick look at the Letterboxd reviews. I always play a minigame in my head by attempting to guess the average rating, for example for the last film I watched - 'Jack the Giant Slayer' - I called it spot on at 2.4. This I genuinely predicted less than 2.0... it's at 3.5! To tell you I was flabbergasted would be an understatement. There have been films in the past when my thoughts are the opposite (both positively and negatively) to the majority elsewhere, but I think this one takes the crown as the most polarizing so far. I just didn't like this 2011 release at all, there's one good piece of violence involving a hammer and a head (not like that, ichthyologists) but otherwise I found it all super underwhelming. I hadn't heard of 'Kill List' prior to watching it, I only decided to do so as I noticed it had Neil Maskell in it and I loved his performance a decade ago in television's 'Utopia' - which is of similar ilk to this actually, just as violent but miles, miles greater. Those behind/alongside Maskell didn't get my approval either, with only the aforementioned violence keeping my attention. I could sense a promising concept in there (which I guess many others actually did see, evidently), though this honestly didn't do anything for me all the way through. I sit here flummoxed reading other reviews, even the Wikipedia 'reception' section is all-out gushing about it too. Did Prime Video play me the wrong movie?! Just noticed that this has the same director as 2016's 'Free Fire' (which I rated 6/10), which is a good example of what I mentioned earlier in regards to my thoughts sometimes being a noticeable difference to the majority (fairly uncommon, fwiw). Maybe I just don't like Ben Wheatley movies?

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/11/24

Full Review

Jeffrey P

Spent too much time setting up the conclusion and not enough time on it.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/25/24

Full Review

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Ben Wheatley

Director

Neil Maskell

Jay

Michael Smiley

Gal

MyAnna Buring

Shel

Emma Fryer

Fiona

Ben Crompton

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Synopsis

Events take a darker turn as a contract killer (Neil Maskell) and his business partner (Michael Smiley) carry out a new assignment.

Director: Ben Wheatley
Screenwriter: Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Warp X, Rook Films
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 3, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $26.3K
Runtime: 1h 34m

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