The Killing Gene aka WΔZ (2007)
Last Watch Date - February 26, 2024
Total Times Watched - Once
Comments
Last night when I was reading through Melissa George's filmography, I saw this movie listed (as WΔZ) and decided to check it out. From the synopsis, it sounded like a gritty crime movie. There was some mention of it being similar to Se7en and Saw. Hmm, it can't be that bad right!?
While I came here for Melissa George, this was really the Stellan Skarsgård show. Or maybe the Selma Blair show. Either way, MG played a relatively small role in this and she was a bit one-note. It's not really HER fault, the character is shallow as scripted, so whatever. Oh yeah, Tom Hardy is in this too. He's pretty good playing a low-life thug.
This movie is set in NYC and it has some of the grit that I like about those types of movies. Grand Theft Auto IV has that kind of grit too, and that is by far my favorite GTA game. That's very much relevant to this review, obviously. Part of the griminess is that most of this takes place at night in abandoned warehouses and crack dens. Part of it is the awful characters (I mean this in a good way). There are some pretty rough depicitions of rape and torture in this, which I wasn't really expecting. I thought it would be more implied than explicitly shown. So uh, yeah, if that's not your thing, skip it for sure.
The comparisons to Se7en and Saw make sense. It's a bit of the victim-turned-criminal like both of those. It also has similar styles of death scenes. And torture! But if you're comparing it to those movies, I would say it's better than Saw, worse than Se7en. At least you don't have to listen to Brad Pitt asking about what's in a box.
Recommended?
Probably not. It's not a bad movie, but it felt a bit unoriginal.
