AKA: WAZ
DVD review (region 1)
Directed by Tom Shankland
Starring Stellan Skarsgård, Melissa George, Selma Blair, Tom Hardy, Paul Kaye
Release date 12 August 2008

New York cops Eddie (Skarsgård) and Helen (George) track down a killer who has a unique modus operandi. The victim is tortured, and the only way to make the pain stop is to flick a switch that kills somebody they love…

Although director Tom Shankland tells us on the ‘Making of’ doc how he wanted The Killing Gene to have a very different visual style to that of Se7en, his film is heavily influenced by David Fincher’s serial killer flick, with a few additional Saw-style scenes of clever-clever torture.

It sounds tired and generic, but this downbeat thriller is actually surprising intelligent, offering an intriguing modus operandi, murky morality and fine world-weary performances from Stellan Skarsgård and Melissa George.

If you’re wondering why there are so many British names in the line-up – including Tom Hardy, Paul Kaye and Ashley Waters – it’s because this is actually a British movie, set in New York but mostly filmed in the not-at-all-New-York-like Belfast. This doubling-up works surprisingly well, giving the city an appropriately disorientating feel, and the behind-the-scenes footage show how the filmmakers went about it. Shankland and writer Clive Bradley also give revealing accounts of the themes behind the movie, and there’s a scattering of deleted scenes. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 7/10
It’s relentlessly downbeat and, frankly, just as improbable as a Saw movie, but The Killing Gene is a highly atmospheric and smart addition to the torture-horror sub-genre.

Click here to read the original cinema review