Anatomy of a Scene: The final ritual in Ben Wheatley’s ‘Kill List’
There are few films of the past 15 years or so that leave as big an impression quite like Ben Wheatley’s 2011 pagan horror thriller Kill List, starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley. Wheatley’s movie pays homage to classic British horror films like The Wicker Man whilst providing his own spin on the crime thriller genre.
The plot tells of two former British soldiers turned hitmen, Jay and Gal, who take on one final job as Jay has not worked since returning from a traumatic mission in Kyiv, Ukraine, and is bearing the frustrations of his wife, Shel. They are given a list of three targets to assassinate from a mysterious client, beginning with a priest, who, for some reason, thanks Jay for his murderous actions, imbuing the film with a persistently creeping sense of unease.
Those unsettling words suggest to the audience that something far more sinister is behind the job and that suspicion is ultimately proven to hold significance beyond the truth. After taking care of the priest and a sex offender-listed librarian in moments of shocking violence, Jay and Gal are sent to take out their final target, a wealthy mansion-dwelling Member of Parliament.
However, when hiding in the woods the night before the killing is due to take place, the hitman pair discover a pagan ritual in mid-process, and Jay, clearly still in the throes of Kyiv’s PTSD, opens fire with an assault rifle. They are chased underground by several members of the cult, some of whom gravely injured Gal, leading Jay to perform a mercy killing on his old friend. When returning home, Jay is suddenly knocked unconscious and awakes to one of the most memorable scenes in recent cinema history.
Several figures stand around a bonfire, hooded, cloaked and masked and a woman stands naked, wearing a crown of thorns around her eyes. Very evidently, Jay and Gal have been involved in some sort of malicious pagan ritual, the likes of which had hitherto lay hidden from their wildest comprehension. At this point Wheatley goes in heavy on the occultist symbolism to ramp up the fear in the audience and the camera begins to dart around the scene, mirroring Jay’s fear as he is helped to his feet, still disorientated.
Tense drums as Jay’s shirt is removed and bonds are cut from his wrists, a wooden mask placed over his face and a dagger in his hand. There’s a motif of blindness in the scene; several figures have their vision obscured, suggesting that the fundamental truth that will occur as part of the ritual cannot be seen with human eyes but lies beyond their usual perceptions.
Jay is thrown into the circle against a hunchbacked enemy, and he assumes a hand-to-hand combative stance undoubtedly learned during his time in military service. The hunchback meanwhile staggers around, blindly slashing at the air. The camera rotates in a form of disorientation, and an inhumane growl cuts through the soundtrack. What the hunchback is, we’ve no way of knowing. At least for now…
As Jay makes his first cut on his opponent, there’s a high-pitched squeal, an ushering of pain which will undoubtedly devastate the audience when they learn exactly from where it comes in just a few moments. The two stumbling figures continue to go at one another until Jay takes the upper hand and stabs the absolute life out of the hunchback, showing himself to be the merciless killer he always has been, taking orders of death for so many years prior, without question.
The naked audience then applauds as the hunchback withers and dies on the floor, and Jay removes his mask, victorious. But the worst consequences are yet to come. Several characters from throughout the film, the kill list contractor, the doctor, and Gal’s ex-girlfriend Fiona, are all revealed from behind their respective masks. Evidently, this ritual had been set up all along, as is no mere circumstance.
Wind chimes penetrate eerily through the air as the hunchback’s true identity is revealed. It’s none other than Jay’s wife, Shel, with their son Sam strapped to her back. The score cuts out to isolate Shel’s cries, so indistinct in that earth-shattering moment from laughter, and it’s that suggested laughter that makes us wonder whether Shel might have suspected such a cruel affair from the beginning.
Another round of applause as a crown is placed on the bewildered Jay’s head, and the film cuts to a pagan symbol we’ve spotted on several occasions throughout the runtime. The end of Kill List is nothing short of harrowingly mesmerising and remains in the retina long after the credits have rolled.
Several questions lay open at the conclusion of Kill List. Did Shel know about the cultish movement all along, pissed off with the way Jay had been treating her, befriending Fiona after she marked his house with the pagan symbol? Why was Jay chosen as the victim/participant? What on earth happened in Kyiv that no one was willing to discuss and did it have any impact on Jay’s selection for the ritual?
None of these questions can be answered for certain, but it ought to be pointed out that Wheatley does a masterful job of keeping the occult secret society of his film just about obscured from logical view throughout, masking their truer intentions and thus reinforcing their fearsome air of mystery. Kill List is a film that should be watched on several occasions, each time with more desperation to get closer to the truth and each time that very understanding getting further and further from one’s grasp.
Check out the Kill List trailer below.
