This is a little like a cross between I Spit On Your Grave and a standard serial killer movie like Seven. Alas, it's not quite as good as either. I get that it's going for a tough as nails look, with sleazy cafes, lots of abandoned warehouses, mean-lit streets (usually after rain) and tough-as-old-boots cops, and I get that the shaky camera work is trying to give the whole an air of uncomfortably close escalating horror, but I also feel that the Director has overdone it. In light of this toughness there comes a shock toward the end that runs counter and I admit I didn't see it coming. Somehow the story never creates sufficient tension before the various bursts of blood in the wake of the killer. It's all a bit too close and claustrophobic. I felt the male cops needed to relax a bit and the Director needed to step back a bit. Melissa George was really good as the rookie, and Tom Hardy was good as the thug. His character should have been developed more. The flash-back to the original crime really needed more time, horror and tension, and needed the shock of sudden realisation somehow. OK, that's a lot of being picky. W Delta A is essentially a fairly gripping and deliciously repulsive horror and torture movie, and sufficiently unusual to be worth a watch. Keep well away from children of any age.
Review of The Killing Gene
