He ain't pretty.
Director Paul Sorossy gives a taut, grim, and gritty glimpse into the lives of mobsters who transform violence into performance art. As a sadistic crime boss boasts, these men embrace their brutality. Jon, played brilliantly by Andrew Howard, finds this difficult after he reconnects with childhood friends who are a reminder of a more innocent time. We don't get a lot of details about Jon's past, but the indications are it didn't involve torture. The story focuses on the present and the conflict Jon experiences as he is torn between his old comrades and his current terror mentors.
Set in the underworld of working class Britain, Killing Kind avoids the maudlin affectations Hollywood attributes to hitmen with mid-life crises. Forget any Road To Perdition-type father and son relationships: this is a tale of the devil and his particularly worthy disciple Jon. Director Sorossy manages to cram mayhem into almost every other scene yet it never comes across as gratuitous or cartoonish. Sorossy, who borrows heavily from director Michael Mann in a few of the more memorable and graphically violent scenes, makes certain the audience never forgets how repulsive Jon can be. Any sympathy Jon has generated evaporates with an ending that is both intelligent and disgusting.
As for that ol' debbil Satan, he appears in the form of Jon's mob boss, a sixtyish, heavily tattooed sociopath given to Goethe-like pronouncements that could have been barked from the neighbor's dog to Son of Sam. The Tattooed Man, portrayed by David Calder, steals the show as he instructs Jon on the finer points of torture, contract killing, and the meaning of life. Calder's character is one of the more menacing since Brian Cox nailed Hannibal Lecter in the aforementioned Mann's masterwork, Manhunter. The Tattooed Man's dialogue crackles as he proves to be the Philosopher King of sadism. Geraldine O'Rawe also stands out as Jon's love interest. Her role as a feminine savior, though, is overshadowed by Calder's portrayal of the devil in the form of an English mobster.
Great atmosphere and brilliant cinematography set the stage for the topnotch acting that transforms what could have been an ordinary gangster flick into a powerful exploration of the nature of evil. As Sorossy reminds us, Satan still has the upper hand in this world.
