67
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 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.
- 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.
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe final twist is both baffling and repulsive, but as an evocation of the triumph of evil, it's peerless.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceBrutal 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.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfThere's still tremendous vitality here, and Wheatley's avoidance of yet another Guy Ritchie gabfest is a pleasure in itself.
- 75The A.V. ClubThe A.V. ClubWhile 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.
- 55MovielineStephanie ZacharekMovielineStephanie ZacharekWheatley 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.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineIt'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.
- 20New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierIt 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.