Kill Theory (2009)

Whilst celebrating a graduation at a secluded vacation home, a group of college students find themselves targeted by a sadistic killer who forces them to play a deadly game of killing one another in order to survive.

Kill Theory was released as part of the After Dark Horrorfest. I have seen a lot of films released from the After Dark label, such as Dying Breed, Borderland, Frontier(s) and The Hamiltons, and whilst Kill Theory is maybe not as good as the ones I’ve linked my reviews for, it is way better than the majority released, which I have the unfortunate pleasure of watching again very soon. Some of them are awful…….

Anyway, back on to Kill Theory. The premise of the film finds an unnamed killer (whose identity I will keep a secret, not that it really matters, and IMDb have him as the main billing, and he is one of my ‘tags‘, but you may recognise him from films such as Heat, Blow, and a whole host of horror genre movies) being released from a mental institution, where he has been held for a number of years after a trio of manslaughter charges. A few years ago our killer was climbing some mountains with friends when, after an accident, he decided that the only way to save himself was to sacrifice them. A bit like the true story from the movie/book Touching The Void. In this film it was classed as manslaughter, but to our psycho, it’s a simple and natural instinct to survive, and all humans share it. He aims to prove his point, and calls it his kill theory. His test subjects? A bunch of college friends that have gathered at a cabin in the woods for one last blow out before graduation.

So far it may sound like a plot you have heard a thousand times. That is true, and you probably won’t be too surprised to learn that the group of friends include the usual clichés: the rich, selfish brat (Teddy Dunn) whose dad owns the cabin, his girlfriend (Ryanne Duzich), the fat, single video gamer (Daniel Franzese) and two other couples: the horny couple (Steffi Wickens and Theo Rossi) and the seemingly perfect couple (Agnes Bruckner & Patrick Flueger – Mother’s Day). Rounding out the group we have Taryn Manning who plays the rich brat’s trailer trash step-sister who crashes the party.

If you have watched the trailer, I can see why people may pass this off as a Saw ripoff, complete with an unseen Jigsaw-esque protagonist with a penchant for lessons, tests and videotapes. The thing is, the majority of Kill Theory is nothing like those few scenes intimated, but is instead a fun, fast-paced and well-crafted slasher.

A lot of movies from the After Dark label don’t have the starriest cast list. Yet here with our secret killer, and a few of the leads having popped up in some well-known movies, this definitely helped the calibre of acting on show here. Sure, there was some ropey dialogue at times, and some of the actions went against what I felt I (or anyone) would do in those circumstances, it didn’t take away any of the fun I had with Kill Theory. Visually, there was a bit of blood on show, and a few home-made ‘traps‘ for our students to avoid, but nothing too violent really. Unless you don’t like things going in eyes…….there was a bit of that.

Kill Theory improves upon and goes against the grain of the genre in a few ways. The killer is revealed early on and we know his motivation. His reasons become even more clear at the end of the movie. And the theory behind the Kill Theory being that with enough stress anyone can be a killer is cleverly subverted. If anything, Kill Theory wraps up its plot points, delivers on its promises, and gives a definitive answer to its question. If you can track this down, I think you can have a lot of fun with it.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on January 23, 2013

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