It’s natural, I suppose, to be partisan about the artistic merits of a work that emanates from your own country, be it music, theatre, art or as in this case, film.
Kill was my first pick at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, and although it suffers from a couple of major flaws that prevent it from really reaching the heights, I’m glad to say that it has a great deal to commend it.
It opens with three brothers (Daniel Portman, Calum Ross, and Brian Vernal) on a hunting trip with their father (Paul Higgins, outstanding in the role of the serial abuser). No time is wasted with motives or backstories, they’re there to do away with him, and one bullet later the lads are digging dad a grave in the woods.
The motive comes to light in a series of flashbacks that reveal just how the brothers and their mother suffered, both emotionally and physically, throughout their lives, their mother’s death – did she fall, was she pushed? – being the last straw.
The deed done, they return home. Until a revelation gives them a somewhat contrived reason to return to the scene of the crime, and leads them to find that they are now the intended targets of a mystery gunman. Someone knows what they have done, and is out for revenge. This highlights one of the flaws with the story – they have made a mistake that even the most amateur of killers would not make Hard to believe none of the three have ever seen a murder mystery or watched a horror movie. Had they, it would come as no surprise to them who their assailant might be.
This aside, this is an exceptional piece of film making on what was a tiny budget by today’s standards. All seven cast members are entirely convincing, coming across as real, believable people. Portman, Ross and Vernal make it easy to think of them as family, although their past differences that lead to recurring squabbles could have been more fully developed, while Higgins portrays their domineering father as someone without a single redeeming feature, but retains a realism that prevents him from tipping over into caricature.
Jim Welsh
Radio Summerhall Arts 