Jay is a former soldier who has been working as a hitman with friend Gal but after a job went wrong in Kiev he has been avoiding working for eight months. Now his wife thinks it is time for him to get back to work. After some pressure he agrees to do another job with Gal; they meet the client and learn that there are to be three targets on their kill list. The first is relatively easy if a little surprising; things get very messy on the second job but that is nothing compared to the third; that is downright weird taking the film and its characters from a crime film into the territory of horror.

This certainly won't be for everybody. It is brutally violent at times; this is done in a disturbingly realistic manner with nothing stylised or humorous to make it easier to watch. The change of genres comes as a genuine surprises even though there are earlier hints that something strange is going on; notably how the victims react as they are about to be murdered. Thankfully it isn't entirely bleak; some of Jay and Gal's conversations are quite funny. The cast does a fine job; most notably Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley as Jay and Gal and MyAnna Buring as Shel. The cinematography is great giving the early sections of the film a very real feel while the conclusion is made to feel like a nightmare. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to anybody who doesn't mind being disturbed and enjoys a conclusion that leave them thinking about what they have just watched.

An odd, and oddly effective, mix of hit-man thriller and cult horror, KILL LIST is one of the most talked-about British horrors films in recent years. Imagine my surprise, then, to see it premiering on television a scant year after release, and of course I jumped at the chance to catch up with what is by all accounts a controversial little movie.

For the most part, KILL LIST works. It unsettles and creeps you out courtesy of lots of foreboding, ominous sequences (accompanied by music which is a little too overdone at times) punctuated by moments of stark and shocking violence. Writer/director Ben Wheatley does good to build the sense of mystery, keeping his character backgrounds shady and throwing in random clues that make little sense at the time but help build towards the feeling of something big as the climax approaches. It's also one of the nastiest mainstream films I've seen in a while, with one scene involving a hammer taking screen violence to a whole new level.

Sad, then, that the ending of this film is such a disappointment, an ambiguous tie-up that seems shoehorned in purely to provide a few more exploitative shocks instead of making any kind of sense whatsoever. The mystery is left just that, a mystery, and at times I was infuriated at the lack of resolution. The film also veers away from the modern day realism it has built beforehand to hark back to the Hammer Horror days of yesteryear. Not that I have a problem with Hammer films – I love them, but in their own time and quaint-ish setting. The all-too-familiar horror tropes of the climax just feel overdone, coincidentally almost exactly the same problem I had with another recent watch, THE LAST EXORCISM.

The cast acquit themselves well with the script, for the most part, and there's a level of kitchen sink-style authenticity to much of the dialogue; also some natural, unforced humour which offsets all the nastiness. Neil Maskell is very good when his lead character is asked to do the more disturbing things, although I never quite bought him as the family man he's shown to be at the outset. Michael Smiley is equally as good as Maskell's buddy and colleague, and the film's central pairing works very well indeed. Original British horror cinema, with life and style all of its own (not merely following Hollywood trends),has stalled somewhat in the last decade, but with the likes of KILL LIST we could be in for something of a renaissance

The version of the film I saw had an introduction by Ben Wheatley. He said he had no problems in understanding the film. Well as the director and co-writer I expect him to know what was happening!

Wheatley cut his teeth in television comedies such as Ideal. His film work has been a contrast, sometimes featuring nihilistic violence. Ironically his experience of movies landed him the Doctor Who gig as he directed Peter Capaldi's debut story.

Kill List is a three act film, with each act being tonally different. It starts out as domestic drama of a dysfunctional family. Jay (Neil Maskell) is angry at his wife for blowing £40k in the last eight months.

Now he needs to get back with his pal Gal (Michael Smiley) to restart their jobs as hitmen where they have been handed three jobs by a sinister man under a contract signed in blood. There was a strange scene at a dinner party where Gal's new girlfriend Fiona carves some kind of sign behind a mirror.

The second act is more like a thriller. Hit number one is a priest, who smiles as he is shot dead. Hit number two is a librarian, his death is more violent. Jay and Gal uncover that the librarian was involved in child porn. Yet the victim reveals something to Jay, that he recognises him.

Is it as an angel of mercy or a demon? Jay bashes his body with a hammer and the victim says thank you until he dies. The death gets more gruesome as they go after people involved in the child porn ring, Jay's behaviour shows him to be unhinged.

The third act turns all The Wicker Man. Jay and Gal's third hit is a politician. They stumble on some weird human sacrifice by some kind of devil worshiping cult in the countryside. The politician is part of it, as is Fiona and so is the sinister man who gave them the kill list. The cult members chase after Jay and Gal, yet some of them again welcomed their deaths.

The ending is ambiguous. Was Jay being primed to be some kind of antiChrist or is he just an unreliable narrator who has gone mad? What was the deal with the bizarre knife fight with the hunchback who turned out to be Jay's wife and kid.

The script had input from the rest of the cast and I did think it got muddied and confused somewhere.