Kill List
IFC Films | Release Date: February 3, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
3
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boxoffice MagazineTodd GilchristJan 29, 2012
Kill List is a major breakthrough for writer/director Ben Wheatley, whose assured and painstaking handling of this difficult material makes for an unforgettable viewing experience. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 12, 2012
One of the scariest films I've seen in ages, although I cannot in all honesty explain exactly what the movie is about. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 2, 2012
There's no disputing the ingenuity and even the brilliance of this mind-bending mashup, which begins as a gritty recession-era marriage drama - the opening scene features a couple arguing about whether they have the money to get the Jacuzzi fixed - and then descends into ominous violence and finally total insanity. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 2, 2012
This is a far more brutal film than Wheatley's first, 2009's "Down Terrace." Though it had crime at its center as well, it was balanced by a dry irony and far less blood. There is no offset in Kill List, with one scene so relentless in its gore that it makes the notorious elevator scene in "Drive" pale in comparison. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 31, 2012
There's still tremendous vitality here, and Wheatley's avoidance of yet another Guy Ritchie gabfest is a pleasure in itself. Read full review
80
Village VoiceChuck WilsonJan 31, 2012
Brutal and bloody and utterly unnerving, thanks in no small measure to Jim Williams's brilliant score, which is filled with strings so taut, they sound like screams you might hear in the distance and decide (quite sensibly) to ignore. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 30, 2012
The final twist is both baffling and repulsive, but as an evocation of the triumph of evil, it's peerless. Read full review
80
VarietyAndrew BarkerJan 29, 2012
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 full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 29, 2012
Director-screenwriter Ben Wheatley brings a fresh mystery and bite to the hitman genre, although a deeply weird twist and buckets of gore may throw more than a few audience members. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 15, 2012
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 full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 14, 2012
The movie may leave you scratching your head way too much when it's over. Yet it proves Ben Wheatley not only knows how to make a movie, but he knows how to make three at the same time. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 1, 2012
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 full review
75
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreFeb 1, 2012
While the sum of Kill List comes across as less than its parts, it offers some strikingly nightmarish imagery and a feel that's reminiscent of an earlier, grittier era, yet at times sharply contemporary. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisFeb 2, 2012
That assured style is the spackle that holds Kill List together: when the plot doglegs into insanity, and the characters follow suit, this brutal fever dream refuses to fall apart. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 1, 2012
There's atmosphere and tension and dark humor and some truly shocking gore throughout. But the positive impression all of that makes pales next to a headscratching finale that is admittedly well-executed but is also undeniably perverse and borderline random. Maybe you'll go with it, simply out of shock. I, alas, could not. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 29, 2012
Viewers will find themselves well into this intriguing movie before they get a sense of what it's about and where it's going. And even then, they'll never correctly predict the film's outcome or foretell its bizarre ending. Read full review
60
NPRScott TobiasFeb 6, 2012
Following up his acclaimed debut feature "Down Terrace," a gangster drama that also mixed genre shocks with dark comedy and explosive family spats, Wheatley gives Kill List a discordant tone that makes it feel like a horror film even when it isn't. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekFeb 2, 2012
Wheatley drops enough unnerving bread crumbs in the first two-thirds to leave you wondering where the hell he's headed, and even the big finale should be satisfying enough: It just belongs to a different movie, and it's unsettling in a way that doesn't feel earned. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFeb 15, 2012
It's all very sub-Tarantino showy and empty - at least, until the head-scratching climax, which 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 full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 3, 2012
Banal at the beginning and preposterous at the close, the British horror film Kill List jumbles together wildly incongruous ingredients to create a dramatic mush. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyJan 30, 2012
It's a road movie of sorts, like the Steve Coogan/Bob Brydon comedy The Trip, only with fewer expert impressions and more inept executions, but lovely scenery just the same. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 2, 2012
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 full review
More From This Movie

67 Critic Reviews

6.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL