History Film / KillList

* AwfulWeddedLife: Shel and Jay are very unhappy. It's one of the first things we learn about them.

Jay is a former soldier and sometime ProfessionalKiller who's fallen on hard times. He hasn't worked since a disastrous job in Kiev eight months ago and his wife Shel is pressuring him to do something about their family's financial problems. So when Jay's best mate and business partner Gal tells him about a contract to assassinate a list of targets for a mysterious client, he reluctantly pulls himself out of retirement and takes the job. But it soon becomes clear that this isn't an ordinary hit list -- the client insists on Jay signing the contract in blood and his victims take the time to thank him before their deaths. It's clear that Jay and Gal have been dragged into something far bigger and more disturbing than they could possibly have imagined...

* ProductionPosse: Nigel Maskell and Michael Smiley both frequently work with Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump, who are also writing partners. Both Maskell and Smiley have worked with Myanna Buring before, and Wheatley explains this as a reason for their casting.

* HitmanWithAHeart: Deliberately subverted, according to Word of God. [[spoiler:Jay does seem to genuinely love Shel and Sammy, but mistreats both of them and ultimately ''kills'' them at the end of the film, albeit unknowingly.]] Gal is a straighter example.

* HitmanWithAHeart: Deliberately subverted, according to WordofGod. [[spoiler:Jay does seem to genuinely love Shel and Sammy, but mistreats both of them and ultimately ''kills'' them at the end of the film, albeit unknowingly.]] Gal is a straighter example.

* HellIsThatNoise: When the cultist attack there are all kinds of weird shrieking noices that are heard on the soundtrack. It's especially creepy because it's left ambivalent if that is just the soundtrack or the cult members are making those sounds themselfs.

* TakeOurWordForIt: We (thankfully) don't get to see the librarian's porn video, but we know it was bad enough to provoke a ''very'' extreme reaction from Jay, leading to the deaths of everyone associated with it.

* SteelEarDrums: Gal and Jay fire their guns repeatedly in a narrow stone tunnel with no apparent affect to their hearing.
** Averted. They were actually wearing ear plugs, and you can see it for a split second when Jay opens fire in the forest.

''Film/KillList'' is a 2011 British thriller/horror film directed by Ben Wheatley, written by Wheatley and Amy Jump, and starring Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley and [[Creator/MyannaBuring [=MyAnna=] Buring]].

* ViolenceIsDisturbing: The whole movie qualifies for this but the scene where Jay and Gal interrogate the librarian stands out.

* AssholeVictim: Discussed. Jay is adamant that all the people on the list (and additionally the librarian's associates in the porn business) are bad people and deserve to die. Though we see this is true for the librarian and his associates, we can only infer that it's true for the others on the list. On at least one occasion Jay offers unfounded assertions about the crimes the people on the list may have committed (such as suggesting that the priest is [[PaedophilePriest raping children]]).

* PaedophilePriest: Discussed. The first target is a priest, and Jay wonders if this might be the reason he's on the list.

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:The hunchback is revealed actually be Shel with Alex on her back. She laughs before succumbing to her wounds. The cultists reveal their identities and applaud Jay's victory in the fight. Cue credits.]]

''Film/KillList'' is a 2011 British thriller/horror film directed by Ben Wheatley, written by Wheatley and Amy Jump, and starring Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley and [=MyAnna=] Buring.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Jay gets the palm of his left hand slashed open by the client so that Jay's blood will splatter on the contract along with the client's, forming a sinister BloodOath. While Jay cleans the wound, Gal notes that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint at least the client didn't cut the hand Jay jerks off with.]]

* AssholeVictim: Discussed. Jay is adamant that all the people on the list are bad people and deserve to die. Though we see this is true for the librarian, we can only infer that it's true for the others on the list.

* [[spoiler:TheBadGuysWin: It's not entirely clear what the cult wants, but they seem to come out of the film on top.]]

* ArcSymbol: The symbol shown in the poster above. It's first seen at the very start of the film, is carved into the back of Jay's mirror by Fiona and is found by Gal on files in the librarian's safe. [[spoiler:Eventually, it's revealed to be the symbol/logo of the cult.]]

* TheBadGuysWin: [[spoiler:It's not entirely clear what the cult wants, but they seem to come out of the film on top.]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: After seeing the librarian's apparently horrific porn video, Jay decides to torture him before killing him, firstly to get the names of his associates and then just to make him suffer.

* {{Gorn}}: Even by the standards of horror movies, the film is ''very'' gory - the most obvious example, of course, being Jay's graphic torture and murder of the second with a hammer.

* KitchenSinkDrama: The film was acclaimed by many critics for its highly naturalistic dialogue (much of which was improvised) and believable presentation of a normal middle-class family.