Kill List 2011

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: It's remarkably clever and resourceful filmmaking, and a little on the diabolical side as well. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: The film's title may draw you in, but it's the texture that keeps you watching. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Enlivens its schematic, episodic story with some teary domestic drama and a wacky Wicker Man ending. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The final twist is both baffling and repulsive, but as an evocation of the triumph of evil, it's peerless. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: An ultraviolent crime thriller that isn't very thrilling, British filmmaker Ben Wheatley's "Kill List" starts off as businesslike as its title. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: This is one movie people are going to be flinching at and talking about for some time to come. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A scuzzy little cross between a crime movie and a horror freak-out that gets under your skin and stays there, even if you can't understand half of what the characters are saying. Read more

Ben Sachs, 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. Read more

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. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Tries to be Eyes Wide Shut, The Wicker Man, and The Twilight Zone all at once, but only makes you wish that you were watching one of them instead. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Deeply edgy, gory crime film maintains perfectly calibrated tension before dropping a bombshell that will be too much for some viewers. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The camera is unflinching, and so is Wheatley, as the story moves toward the unthinkable. It's left to you when and whether to look away. Read more

Mark Olsen, L.A. Weekly: When it's all over, audiences are sent reeling out of the theater with heads spinning and guts churning. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: One of the scariest films I've seen in ages, although I cannot in all honesty explain exactly what the movie is about. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: Teases out mysteries large and small - far too many for it to resolve - only to collapse in a bloody, calamitous heap. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It would be easy to say that the final minutes of this mixed-up thriller make everything before it meaningless, but that would indicate the odd conclusion has meaning, too. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "Kill List" jumbles together wildly incongruous ingredients to create a dramatic mush. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's baffling and goofy, blood-soaked and not boring. That it's well-made adds to the confusion; it feels like a better film than it turns out to be. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This movie is yet another testament to the thriving creativity of the British indie-film scene. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: "Kill List" has a slow build, but don't be lulled into complacency. This is one of the most violent and disturbing films you'll see in an art house. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Allow the film to take hold and its power is inescapable: the effect is like placing your head in a vice and waiting as it inexorably closes. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: You may look back at the end and wonder, how did we get here? Pay attention: There are small clues along the way. Read more

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. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: Brutal and bloody and utterly unnerving... Read more