😿😿😿
Kill List. Ben Wheatley, 2011.
Edition screened: StudioCanal Blu-ray , released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.
Summary: Numerous depictions of murdered animals
Details:
1) A small pile of gore in the front yard at 22:50 is identified as a rabbit, and presumed left as a gift by the cat. Jay later cooks the meat and eats it.
2) A dog is found murdered along with his human companion, 53:17-53:21.
3) A cat is found hung and suffocated at the family home, 1:01:45-1:01:55. We see the bound dead body again 1:02:10-1:02:16.
4) Gal carries two dead rabbits he has shot and tosses them down by the campfire, 1:12:05-1:12:14. He skins and butchers them fairly graphically, 1:12:36-1:13:00.
The first two depictions pass quickly. The last two are rather graphic with follow-up scenes, as noted, that really allow the images to sink in. You can skip the entire hanged sequence (1:01:45 through 1:02:16), and the only missed dialogue is Jay’s and Gal’s general grief about the incident and Jay’s determination to get to the bottom of things. Similarly, you can skip the entire rabbit butchering (1:12:05-1:13:00) and miss only general camaraderie.
Kill List is a challenging film. It has brutally violent moments of the Irreversible type, and director Wheatley makes the unpopular decision to concentrate on mood and image rather than spoon-feeding plot. As such, it obliges our preference to scream that a film (or a painting or a sculpture) makes no sense, rather than to attempt understanding. Please allow me to point you in the right direction: An unexplained incident in Kiev indicates Jay as a potential antichrist figure. Fiona, a member of a Satanic cult, infiltrates Jay’s home and helps set him on a path toward becoming a Devil incarnate, a “reconstruction” as the mysterious wealthy client says.