Kill sets it's stall out pretty early, and within a few minutes of the opening of the film it's clear exactly where things are going to go, but even without much mystery in the set up, the film absolutely commands your attention.
Kill tells the story about three brothers, Henry (Daniel Portman), John (Brian Vernel), and Vince (Calum Ross), who join their father, Don (Paul Higgins), on a hunting trip into the Scottish countryside shortly after the death of their mother, Kate (Anita Vettesse). But this isn't a trip for the four of them to bond, nor are they going into the forest to work through their collective grief. Instead, the three younger men have hatched a plot to murder their father, and leave his body in a pre-prepared, shallow grave. Violence ensues, and Don is shot through the chest and killed. And this is just the first five minutes of the film.
The brothers bury their father and return to the family farm, where they drink the night away on his expensive booze, coming to terms with the violence that they've just inflicted. It's during this that we learn that Don was incredibly abusive, that he terrorised his family for their entire lives, and the recent death of their mother can be laid squarely on him. Waking the next day, the three of them prepare to use the key taken from Don's body to open the family safe and divide out the hoard of wealth within. However, when they realise they accidentally threw the key into the grave with Don they must head back out into the woods to dig him up. Upon doing so they make a startling discovery, Don's body is gone, replaced with the stag they used as bait in their murder of him. Now the brothers must ask, is Don still alive, did someone else find his body, or has one them the three of them turned against the others?
Kill is a film that handles suspense well, and most the of the scenes have a strong undercurrent of unease and tension running through them. Whether it's the opening scene of patricide, the flashbacks to the abuse Don put his family through, or the question of who seems to be following them through the forest, there's always some kind of looming threat present in Kill. Because of this, there are times when the film feels quite uncomfortable, especially in the flashbacks. The scene in which Don, angry that his family did something as simple as paint an egg together, forces his terrified wife to eat the boiled gee whole, shell included, is perhaps one of the most skin-crawling in the film. Kill manages to capture the feel of an abusive household well, and the scenes in which we peer into this family history are made all the more impactful because of his.
Whilst the strong writing from director Rodger Griffiths, alongside his co-writer Robert Drummond, is absolutely a selling point for the film, it's the performances from the central cast that elevates things. Best known for his role as the every kind and helpful Pod in Game of Thrones, Daniel Portman feels very different here as the older of the three brothers. Perhaps the most like his abusive father, his character of Henry carries a lot of anger with him, and he's the first to make threats and give orders. There are times when you wonder if the brothers might turn on each other, and that more often than not comes from Henry's reactions in any given moment.
He contrasts well the the other two brothers, who offer very different approaches. Calum Ross is very subdued as Vince, delivering a quieter performance where you wonder if he feels much of anything. As his two older siblings are quick to argue, or first to make plans, Vince seems happy to fade into the background, to keep things to himself. It's perhaps something of a thankless role, being the one of the four leads who feels like he does the least, but it never feels like Ross is not trying, and even in his quieter moments you can see the thought and emotion that's being quietly conveyed behind his stoic façade. Brian Vernel makes for a nice middle ground between the two. He feels the most rational, not as quick to anger as Henry, and containing some of the more thoughtful qualities of Vince. Vernel is the most 'normal' of the three, and I think more embodies what most of us would be like in this situation. He gets afraid, he doubts himself, and he seems to be the one of the three who tries to think things through the most.
Rounding out the core cast is Paul Higgins, who's absolutely terrifying as the vicious and cruel Don. In the very first scene of the film he finds himself with his son pointing a rifle at him, and instead of being afraid he mocks and belittles him whilst urging him to pull the trigger. He's a man to whom fear comes first, who feels like he's important because his family respect him through fear of what happens if they don't. There's a moment in the film where he talks about how cruel his own father was, and how his sons should be happy he's nowhere near as bad, and it's an interesting throwaway comment. It raises questions of generational trauma, and plays into how we see Henry as being the most like Don and if this is a passed down trait. But it also gives an insight into Don as well, showing us that despite clearly being a bully and a tyrant he sees himself as a decent man, and this comes through in Higgins' performance. You do absolutely hate him in every scene, but he never comes across feeling arch, or two dimensional. He feels as nuanced and well rounded as you're likely to get for a film such as this.
Alongside the strong performances Kill also looks extremely pretty. The film is set on the backdrop of an unnamed part of the Scottish Highlands, with much of the films runtime being set within the forests that cover the hills there. And it's absolutely gorgeous. The locations chosen for the film have a beauty to them, yet thanks to the remoteness, the lack of light, and sweeping morning fog this beautiful landscape often also feels sinister and oppressive, which ties into the themes of the film well. Despite being out in the open you feel like the characters are in danger as you can't see very far, and you begin to wonder if danger is lurking behind the next tree, or is stalking towards them through the thick fog.
Kill begins with a very simple premise, but over the course of the film things spiral out of control in a number of ways. The characters get pushed and tested, relationships get redefined, assumptions are challenged, and the story of this abused and broken family becomes the focus of everything. You not only come to wonder if everyone is going to make it out alive, but if the family and their love for each other will become a casualty as well. The film deals with anger, abuse, and feelings of family loyalty in some surprising ways, and it's brutal honesty is absolutely its biggest strength.
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