Kill Theory

Title: Kill Theory
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Horror
Starring: Taryn Manning, Agnes Bruckner, Patrick Flueger (The 4400)

Ever since the very first ‘Saw’ film arrived with a fresh idea from the tired slashers flooding the screens in abundance, it has spawned numerous sequels and films clearly ‘inspired’ by the film (and even a theme park ride near me, but don’t bother, as its not very good), most of these do little but place people in an enclosed space and have them go crazy. Now, I’d be lying if this didn’t fall under the ‘clearly inspired by’ category, but what sets them apart is that they have actually try to spin things a little differently.

The plot follows a man, recently released on parole for the second-degree murder (manslaughter if you’re from the UK) of three of his best friends, whom he was forced to kill to save himself in a climbing accident. He wants to prove others would make the same decision, so forces a group of graduating high school kids, out in a huge house in the middle of nowhere, to kill each other in true ‘Battle Royale’ style. Three hours, of the initial eight only one can be left, otherwise they all die. It’s this little addition, this ‘twist’– alright, it’s still hardly the epitome of originality – that allows this film to remain interesting where many of the saw sequels failed.

The acting from many of the cast was not the best, though this is hardly unusual for the horror genre. There was a lot of yelling and screaming, but for the most part remained fairly unbelievable; there was little that really made you care what happened to them, with possible the exception of Taryn Manning’s character who seemed to be the only female with a personality (who appeared to be picked based on looks over ability, which begs the question, why Agnes Bruckner?). Of the males, we find ourselves with the cannon fodder, the gentleman, the crybaby who cried more than the women and the general asshole. Whilst it’s perhaps interesting to think, am I the asshole or the dude who’s going die within the first 30mins, the characters themselves are cliché and fairly predictable.

Instead where this films manages to shine is with the script itself. Not through the deaths and the way they are worked (as with the exception of one, were fairly mediocre) but rather through the constant movement. Each scene is kept short and snappy, there are no lengthy ‘mourn the dead’ scenes, but sharp decisive scenes with plenty of sudden twists, so large in number that predicting them all is rather difficult to accomplish even for a seasoned horror addict. Spending half the film trying to escape, then half fighting amongst each other in panic was well worked, and whilst it fails to deliver on a great deal of tension it will certainly keep you intrigued for its duration.

What’s perhaps a little sad is that there was real potential for this to be decent film. Partially funded by Lionsgate, its scheduled theatrical release was withdrawn along with a good portion of funding, perhaps due to the inexperience of the Director (this being his debut), but despite this it at no point felt cheap or constrained in terms of cost. ‘Gory’ scenes were done in such a way that little costs would be required, leaving more to the imagination than explicitly showing much of the bloodshed. Instead this is destined as a straight-to-dvd flop, well worth the pittance being asked for as it sits in the bargain bin. This wont be winning any awards any time soon, but delivers on a solid enough horror.