Critic Reviews
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Nigel Floyd, Time Out
The performances are intense and Morton Søborg's gritty, atmospheric cinematography recalls '70s crime movies such as 'The French Connection'. Sadly, the tonally uneven 'WAZ' cannot quite match their piercing intelligence.
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Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central
All in all, this is a nicely robust DVD for a damn fine little horror/thriller, depending on how loose your definition of either genre is. Truly good stuff!
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Lucius Gore, ESplatter
'The Killing Gene' feels like a film that was trying to be something else -- maybe a dark and bloody episode of 'The Wire.'
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Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
Think of Saw and multiply it by Seven.
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David Gritten, Daily Telegraph
A little too close to torture-porn for most tastes, but debutant director Tom Shankland shows promise.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
This serial-killer horror is a knockoff of the now seriously knackered Saw franchise.
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Mark Samuels, Total Film
Ugly to look at and nasty in the extreme, this British-made flick should please genre fans with its icky body horror. Beneath the surface gore, there's a healthy amount of psychological intensity for such a seemingly hackneyed Fincher clone.
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Rob Daniel, Sky Movies
Recommended for audiences who thought Kevin Bacon's Death Sentence was too restrained; everyone else steer clear.
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Chris Tilly, IGN Movies UK
The most unusual and original horror film to be made on these isles in many a year.
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Jamie Russell, BBC
Although he struggles to make the British-feeling production convince, UK helmer Tom Shankland gets the faux-Fincher nihilism just right.
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Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
If you've got the stomach for strong scenes of torture, and the heart to take part in an uncomfortable debate about human nature, this intelligent horror is well worth your time...
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Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Enjoyably trashy thriller, stylishly directed by Tom Shankland, despite a couple of dodgy performances and an over-reliance on gory torture scenes towards the end.
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Anton Bitel, Film4
Out of the bloodiest horror, the darkest noir and the bleakest morality drama, Tom Shankland has crafted an unusual and highly affecting love story, with a central performance from Stellan Skarsgård to die for.
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Scott Weinberg, FEARnet
The film succeeds on the back of one stellar performance, two surprisingly engaging plot threads, and a whole bunch of seriously unpleasant atmosphere.
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Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
It's a little misguided, but you can't help but admire [Shankland's] fierce sense of style.
Read all 15 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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My predicted rating: 3
This plot could easily have been made into a gritty Thriller, or a very suspenseful Horror, instead it came across as a cheap version of an otherwise potentially good film. The acting started off pretty poor and got better in parts. The Brit Actors were… More
My predicted rating: 3
This plot could easily have been made into a gritty Thriller, or a very suspenseful Horror, instead it came across as a cheap version of an otherwise potentially good film. The acting started off pretty poor and got better in parts. The Brit Actors were quality Actors who are worthy of much better roles.
It was sort of watchable, but totally lacked any suspense.
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This film has, deceivingly, been pitched as "Saw" by way of "Se7en". Firstly, it doesn't have the originality of the first "Saw" installment and secondly, it is by no means, anywhere near as good as "Se7en".
New York cops Eddie Argo… More
This film has, deceivingly, been pitched as "Saw" by way of "Se7en". Firstly, it doesn't have the originality of the first "Saw" installment and secondly, it is by no means, anywhere near as good as "Se7en".
New York cops Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgard) and Helen Westcott (Melissa George) investigate a series of bizarre murders in which innocents are tortured in front of guilty loved ones who could (but don't) volunteer to die in their place.
The fact that it's a serial killer yarn is frankly, the only comparison that can be made with the films mentioned above. It has the atmosphere in abundance, looking very gritty and dangerous but all it achieves in doing, is reminding you that graphic violence in films is completely unnecessary, if the script is in place beforehand. Which this just doesn't have. It strings us along with the old who-done-it? storyline but after half an hour of it's nasty attitude and having a lack of identity with the characters, I couldn't care less who done what, or why, when, or how. All I was aware of was that I couldn't give a shit if any of them sneezed and their heads fell off. A shame really, as it uses a philsophical question as a good narrative tool. Asking "does altruism exist in nature?" In dealing with altruism it should have shown some of it's own and saved us from this abusive assault. However, a short appearance from the very talented Tom Hardy and Stellan Skarsgard getting the lead role for a change, are plus points.
A film that really looks the part but leaves a rotten aftertaste and ultimately falls into torture-porn category.
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Nothing but a bunch of cliches and predictable twists. Only thing that is slightly impressive here, is the use of HD-camera that brings certain kind of grittines in it. Otherwise this is like those crappy Saw-films, with less gore and killings in it. But this one is not without… More
Nothing but a bunch of cliches and predictable twists. Only thing that is slightly impressive here, is the use of HD-camera that brings certain kind of grittines in it. Otherwise this is like those crappy Saw-films, with less gore and killings in it. But this one is not without it's torture porn. Climax specially exists just for the sake of shocking the audiences. I'm not saying that Tom Shankland does not have any talent as a director, he just needs better material for his next film. He certainly knows how to handle camera and play with lighting. I do hope that he sinks his teeth into something better material and not into any cheap horror flick stuff. That is left to be seen.
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ok movie on more then that.
check it out if your bored
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He's a grizzled, veteran detective. She's a rookie getting her first taste of the big city. Serial killer turns up with ties to a case in his past.
It wants to be the next Se7en (by way of Saw), but is a very long way away from it's goal. It's also crap.
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An incredibly pleasant surprise. Often us horror folk lament that a lot of our favourite genre's output does not have much brains. However, sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough such as this or the equally good Antibodies. It's great when a writer uses the horror… More
An incredibly pleasant surprise. Often us horror folk lament that a lot of our favourite genre's output does not have much brains. However, sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough such as this or the equally good Antibodies. It's great when a writer uses the horror genre (the best genre there is! Yay!) to explore interesting moral questions and ideas. Granted, I knew this was going to be at least decent with Skarsgard in a starring role, but I never dreamed I'd like it as much as I did. I was actually a little choked up by the ending.
I'm certain one could poke holes in the moral dilemma in the film (the fact that the "tests" were performed on morally devoid criminals) but what the hell, it's good to see ideas like this thrown about along with our blood and guts sometimes. Definitely worth a watch at the very least. Watch along with The Ninth Configuration which this movie almost seems like a companion piece to.
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Clichés and stereotypes aside, "W Delta Z" has an throughout entertaining story that centres around interesting philosophical themes, like moral and egoism. A few well shot brutal scenes and overall satisfying camera work and cinematography. Pretty good acting and music. A… More
Clichés and stereotypes aside, "W Delta Z" has an throughout entertaining story that centres around interesting philosophical themes, like moral and egoism. A few well shot brutal scenes and overall satisfying camera work and cinematography. Pretty good acting and music. A somewhat underrated movie if you ask me, but in many ways a typical thriller that's easy to forget.
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The Killing Gene follows the story of a detective and his new partner as they try and track down a killer that is killing people that the detective had delt with in a previous case the killer seems to be killing people by haveing them make a choice between themselves and the ones they… More
The Killing Gene follows the story of a detective and his new partner as they try and track down a killer that is killing people that the detective had delt with in a previous case the killer seems to be killing people by haveing them make a choice between themselves and the ones they love useing torture and electrocution. Pretty good suspense thriller that falls apart in some places but has good performances all around includeing some gore scenes and a small twist ending worth given a look. Another release threw the Dimension Extreme label
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First of all I'm gonna say that I was severely disappointed. I expected a clever thriller full of twists but instead I got this crappy plotted, badly acted movie with a very stupid mini-twist at the end supported by useless gore. Oh and did I mention that it also looked really… More
First of all I'm gonna say that I was severely disappointed. I expected a clever thriller full of twists but instead I got this crappy plotted, badly acted movie with a very stupid mini-twist at the end supported by useless gore. Oh and did I mention that it also looked really low budget. It seemed that they used a handheld 'home video' camcorder to make this film.
I seriously am gonna tell you to ignore this film, even if you love mediocre thrillers, because this is well below average.
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Is an average thriller/horror flick with few graphic scenes that are well done but the film lacks in suspense,besides it reveals everything too quick related to the killer & at times the film turns out predictable.Better than few torture porn films i seen in recent years &… More
Is an average thriller/horror flick with few graphic scenes that are well done but the film lacks in suspense,besides it reveals everything too quick related to the killer & at times the film turns out predictable.Better than few torture porn films i seen in recent years & the film goes at a good pace.Some people are comparing this to such films as "Saw" & "Seven",to me is just a revenge film.What disappoints me the most is this gimmick for unrated dvds,specially when i find out that the most brutal & gruesome torture scene was left out from the movie & you can see it at the deleted scenes in the dvd special features.
<a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/blood%20drop/Kurious81/Emo/blooddrop.gif?o=46" target="_blank"><img src="http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b173/Kurious81/Emo/blooddrop.gif"></a>
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Absolute belter of a movie. Edgy, well paced and with a great scrip this was well worth a watch....
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<i>Saw</i> + <i>Seven</i> = <i>Waz</i>
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