Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
Wow, what a movie this is! I was advised to not read up on it and ‘go in cold’ so I did exactly that. If you’ve seen it, you’ll agree with me that it is the best way to approach this movie as what you will witness over the next 100 minutes or so, is sheer, captivating brilliance.
Throughout this movie I was (and still am) baffled, horrified and I am still even now unnerved by the ending. There are some brilliantly subtle hints throughout the movie that offer a possible explanation on the bizarre ending but you are left wondering if these are red herring’s, at one point I thought is this going into 6th Sense territory?
Be warned, this is extremely violent, I thought Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 was violent, but this takes it to another level for me, possibly because it wasn’t as glossy and just seemed so real, I must add here that this is not gore for gore’s sake, this is dark and realistic violence that adds to the disturbing mood this movie sets. This is not enjoyable violence, this is gripping and shocking violence, I thought I could handle gore, but found myself wincing at this, especially during one scene in particular.
What genre is this movie? To be honest, I can’t tell you, it starts of as a gritty thriller with some drama thrown in, then it sort of morphs into brutal gangster/crime territory, which is littered with strangeness which in turn gets you wondering if it is supernatural, and maintains the surreal, disturbing and mysterious vibe from then on. This movie reminded me of a movie called Heartless – and that was another one where I was unsure as to what I was watching in terms of it’s tone – in a good way!
The final act is quite simply bizarre and certainly does not explain itself, which I guess is the point. While I was shocked and wanted to have more answers, furiously texting friends for their view, I also was satisfied with the fact that there was a level of ambiguity. There are clues along the way as I say, but it really is an intelligent movie and just shows for all the glossy-gore we are subjected to and I still love, give me a gritty and genuine product of just great filmmaking any day – good on you Ben Wheatley.
This is a hard movie to watch because of the brutality, hard to totally comprehend because of the ambiguity and since watching Irreversible, possibly the most disturbing movie I’ve seen in many a year and to be honest, I am not sure I can watch this again as the ending has really left a mental mark which I am finding difficult to shake off – but if you are yet to see, make sure you do, you will not regret it.