User reviews

When taking a chance on a sight-unseen, used DVD, my expectations are usually fairly reflective of the few bucks I shell out for it. "The Killing Gene," while boasting a fine cast, struck me as nothing more than another blurb-happy, sledgehammer obvious entry in the Dimension 'Extreme' line of hit-or-miss horrors. After having watched it, all I can say is...holy hell. Obviously targeting the audiences that made "Saw" and "Hostel" the New Torture Vanguard (one of the box blurbs directly references the former, not without accuracy), "The Killing Gene"--despite some transparently derivative elements pulled from the genre--comes very close to trouncing its competition. Remember that moment near the end of "Saw" when Cary Elwes does the unthinkable with the titular tool? Well, imagine that degree of gritty intensity stretched out over the course of 102 nerve-shredding minutes, and you have a good idea of what to expect here. Stellan Skarsgard (bearing an uncanny resemblance to Donald Pleasence) plays a homicide detective investigating a string of torture-murders with novice cop Melissa George; suspicions are running that the killer is targeting a group of vile gang members out of revenge for an equally hideous crime (which I won't reveal here; it's a truly horrifying scene). Clive Bradley's script doesn't use the torture angle as a mere marketable throwaway, nor does it treat the characters as meat for the machine; there is a surprising amount of development here, to the point where our sympathies and doubts become one and the same. From a visual standpoint, director Tom Shankland ("The Children") uses jerky digital video and claustrophobic close-ups to convey a sense of urgency within a decaying urban nightmare from which all hope has been drained (this could very well be the most squalid metropolis since David Fincher's "Se7en"). As an unapologetic, unashamed horror fan, I often find myself sitting through garbage that isn't worth the DVD it's pressed on, which makes something like "The Killing Gene" all the more refreshing. Yes, there are some parts you'll feel as though you've seen before; but damned if the overall experience doesn't leave you shaken and adequately disturbed afterward. (It also bears noting that this R-rated film contains some of the most unglamorous, boundary-pushing violence in recent memory.)

The most influential American horror movie of the last 20 years is "Seven". This much is undeniable. I really liked "Seven". Great movie. It might be one of my favourites. The only problem is that every inner city set horror thriller made since comes across, to me, as "Seven"-lite.

Which brings me to "Waz".

A city of permanent night. A cop on the edge. A diabolical killer. Inventive, ingenious torture and murder. Victims with a reason for being victimised.

Yup. "Seven"-lite. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, because you have to take every movie on it's own merits, but disappointing when witnessed over and over again.

"Waz" isn't bad. It is just unoriginal and a triumph of style over substance. The city is effectively portrayed as grim, dirty, cold and wet. You wouldn't want to go there on holiday. You wouldn't want to hang out with any of these people. The tone of the film is unpleasant, seedy and black. To coin a dated phrase, a video nasty. It will get you down. It also has one of the most disturbing filmed sequences of sexual abuse I have ever seen. All insinuated, you don't see a thing, but it is horrible.

Melissa George has been better and is frankly wasted as the pouting sidekick, but "Waz" does have a superior cast (Stellan Skarsgård, Selma Blair, Tom Hardy, etc.) for what is effectively a straightforward genre movie. Some of the questions I had as to why they signed up for this movie were answered during the denouement, when the motivations behind Stellan Skarsgård's actions are revealed and his character develops levels way beyond that of a tormented cop.

So, "Waz" was OK. Not bad for a walk on the dark side.

Being a Horror freak, I usually give a chance to pretty much any Horror sub-genre and type. The Killing Gene is one of these Thrillers that I personally don't really consider Horror, as it's not scary or frightening in any way. It does revolve around some pretty terrible things, but I personally like films that are scarier.

Having said that, I think The Killing Gene was a very nice thriller. Stellan Skarsgård, unlike his role in Thor (and The Avengers) was dark and charismatic, and Melissa George was as great as always. The story idea was nice and original, and made it a little hard to pick sides. The twist towards the end did manage to surprise me, and the ending itself was a very nice closure. Notice most of the times I used an adjective, it was "nice". Not more, nor less.

As for criticism? The twist was very original, but I was kinda hoping for something a little deeper and more complicated. All in all, I'd say The Killing Gene was a gloomy combination of Saw, The Bone Collector and Kindergarten Cop.

I personally enjoyed it as a thriller, not as Horror. If you're thriller fans, you probably will enjoy it too.

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.

I give 5 stars as this is one of those films that you can watch and then throw away. It's not bad but it's not good. I don't think it's the sort of film where you would pull it out of your DVD collection every couple of months to watch.

I'm not sure what type of 'film' was used but the director went for (what looked like to me) HD hand-held cams. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean Cloverfield 'all over the show' sort of filming but rather the film print it's self. I suppose this gives the film it's 'gritty' look, which I can appreciate sometimes but for this movie it just made the production look cheap. If it weren't for the famous faces you'd be forgiven for thinking you may be watching a lower budget movie.

As for the film itself....we've seen such ideas already done with 'Saw' and 'untraceable'. There's no real new context here to give a fresh light to the story. The acting was fine and I have no problem with the direction....I just wasn't drawn into the film in any way. It was difficult to hold my interest or really care about the characters on screen.

I don't really give insight into the 'story' of a film when I review as others do that better but as a film goer I'd say that this is a throw-away film.....the sort you'd rent or watch to pass some time. As I've said before, it's not a bad film....but it isn't great. Slap bang in the middle

It's grim, it's gloomy and morally twisted. The Killing Gene is entertaining in darkest of manners. At times, it feels like a forerunner to Law Abiding Citizen only with more subtlety, but it would be more appropriate to think of The Killing Gene as an indie version of Se7en (we all remember that film right?)

The story appears to be set in the city that never sleeps. What we have here is Selma Blair taking on a Jigsaw(Saw series) persona killing her chosen victims using a kind of Milgram's experiment (which I won't describe for obvious reasons). Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner are on the case investigating the appearance of bodies as they start to pop up with an algebraic formula carved on them. Eddie knows something that he is not telling the department, something that may catch up with him before he catches up with the killer.

For a good eighty minutes, this killer thriller growls like a lion, angry but stable. It waits to let out its roar until the climax, which turns out to be the film's Achilles heal. I was fairly impressed by the Killing Gene's ability to avoid getting convoluted, but make no mistake, nothing lasts forever. It has a sloppily presented finale, which is stagey, badly acted, and is a lousy pay off for what at the beginning seemed to be an important element.

I've always had a sort of liking for Stellan Skaresgard, even though he lacks charisma. His screen presence here while somewhat torpid, is surprisingly compelling. He evokes the persona of a man who is hiding a lot. A cynical person could easily see him as cardboard, but bit by bit, he starts to make more sense. the same cannot be said of Melissa George. Her character is pointless, and seems to have no real place in the script. Selma Blair has no acting ability whatsoever. In some films, she has gotten away with her emo persona, but this may be the worst entry in her resume yet.

I'm not sure which part of New York this film is set in, but if I though it was as psychedelic looking as this, I may go just for a photo shoot. the Killing Gene is lit like a comic book, sometimes matching John Carpenter's vision in Escape from New York, only without the street fires and the wrecked cars.

The whole thing works. I am not an easy person to creep out, but The Killing Gene occasionally got under my skin. Just imagine what it would do to a squeamish person. If you were in to Saw or Se7en, I think you'll find The Killing Gene a fairly worthy investment of your time, for a rainy night.

WAZ is just another inept attempt to cash in on the torture porn card, and it tries to do so poorly.

Two cops investigate a series of murders in which one set of victims, prior to death, were forced via torture to electrocute a loved one. As they close in on the killer, it becomes apparent that one of the cops has been less than completely forthcoming about all he knows regarding the case.

There is a ridiculous number of scenes showing people getting in and out of cars in this film. The fact that that stands out as my primary memory of it says something...

This movie tries so hard to be like 'Seven' or 'Silence Of The Lambs' and fails miserably. The overrated use of hand held camera is way overdone here, the script is terrible at times and the acting isn't much better. You can just feel how desperate this movie is to be cool, edgy and hard hitting.

I can't lie, I actually didn't make it to the end and gave up with about 25 minutes to go. So is it fair for me to judge it so harshly? I very rarely give up on a movie that I have spent over an hour watching so this must have been bad. Melissa George is always worth watching but she struggles here and so do most of the cast. I thought 'WAZ' wazn't worth watching (Sorry about the terrible gag!)

Bodies have started turning up with W∆Z carved into their skin, cops Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) and Helen Westcott (Melissa George) investigate and find something truly disturbing is afoot.

It's cut from the same cloth as Saw, Seven and to a degree Hostel, in that it's torture pornish in narrative essence, and aesthetically grim with its neo-noir greens and browns. Tom Shankland's movie is undeniably bleak, but sift through the blood and the grime and you find there's an intelligent film at work, one that opens up an uncomfortable can of worms about human nature. But of course if you like it bloody and mean, then that is served up with relish as well, with all the key scenes packing an emotional whack to go with the jolts.

Brains to go with the splatter, some very smart photography (Morten Søborg) and engaging lead performances, these all lift this above average. If only it hadn't cheapened things down with the daft finale then this would have garnered more support in horror circles. 6/10

Wowee what a film, from the first minute I was hooked, totally glued to the screen. A cop thriller that isn't afraid to hold back, beware that this movie is gritty, gruesome and very graphic. A lot of reviews compare this to movies such as Saw and Se7en and I can certainly see similarities, particularly with Saw but this is so much more than a torture porn franchise which has no end.

The story is about a killer committing gruesome murders against the gangs in new York, with each new body there is a carving etched into the skin "wDeltaz", the police soon find out that the person they are hunting is someone they are already familiar with. Movies as good as this don't come along very often, the smart script, the acting, the thought provoking subject matter, the exquisite way the director handles the murder scenes to not just make them cheesy horror movie killings is fantastic.

Melissa George and Stellan Skarsgard work well together, they both have a great screen relationship, I particularly liked Melissa's character, a woman who at first seems fragile and not a very brave cop but who soon becomes tough as nails, Melissa George is a very fine actress and it's great to see her do something very different. Also, Sally Hawkins stands out once again as a drug addict mother who commits the unspeakable, she's just stellar.

When you find out who the killer is and why they're doing these horrible things, that's when you'll really start to question everything. This movie is definitely worth seeing, it will spark a talk afterwards and will certainly leave an impression, a brutal but brilliant revenge thriller.

This made no sense at all to me. The police acted completely irrationally throughout the film. Tom Hardy mumbles incoherently as usual. The whole thing seems to be another excuse for torture porn and is wildly unrealistic.

Once again the ratings at IMDb are misleading. I should just watch all the flicks rated at around 5 and I reckon I'll enjoy all of them. This is a fantastic movie. I am actually in tears after watching it and that is extremely rare for me. Even more so with a movie this dark and violent. It's not for the faint-hearted nor is it for those who just want to watch a fun thriller/action flick while they scoff popcorn. This movie needs you to give it your attention, you can't be hoovering the loungeroom or texting friends while you watch it in the background. But if you do give it your attention you will be rewarded with a unique and thought provoking experience. Good acting from the always under-appreciated Melissa George - some of the other actors are a bit stilted and the whole movie is clearly low budget - would have benefited from a more astute director - but despite that it's still a great movie and well worth watching.

I'm not sure why this film was so highly acclaimed upon release. It's another grim and unsatisfactory serial killer outing, with Stellan Skarsgard on gruff form as a tired, beat-down old cop investigating the crimes of a murderer who carves a mysterious symbol upon the bodies of his victims.

It amazes me that over a decade after the success of SE7EN, films are still content to copy the same look and feel. W DELTA Z is an uneven movie in which the usual police procedural stuff feels tired and forced. It doesn't help the film at all that the characterisation is nil and when finally unmasked, the serial killer role suffers from the worst miscasting ever. Plus, W DELTA Z copies heavily the kind of torture porn familiar in the SAW movies, so don't expect a lot of insight here, just pain.

With Skarsgard on autopilot, it's left to the supporting cast members to try to do something with the movie. Tom Hardy has a brief but eye catching turn as a street thug, but Melissa George takes centre screen in one of those rookie cop type roles. I've always liked her as an actress, especially given that she seems fond of the horror genre given how many horror movies she'd made over the years. Paul Kaye and Selma Blair are lower down the list. In any case, you can't help but feel that the actors are wasting their time with this one.

To begin with, this movie isn't just another torture porn flick that we've seen a glut of in recent times (Saw, Hostel and the like). There's actually a decent plot regarding the murderer and their victims, something that examines humanity's darker side yet goes beyond the base sadism displayed in actual torture porn, which this isn't. The marketing campaign gave it the appearance of such a film and i was nearly put off, however my optimism got the better of me as I confess, I am a huge horror fan and there were glimpses that it could be quite good. And it is, in fact it's very good.

There's a rugged brutal efficiency in the way this film goes about delivering the goods. You've got your cops, new and old, with sketchy case files and hints of crookedness, a scientific theory of genetics being exploited by our murderer and a gang of outlaws who are being targeted. All of it is carried out with appropriate macabre and occasional wit and humour, good, edgy hand-held camera techniques, clever acting and a pacey script. I thought it was great on an intelligence level and I squirmed every time there was a 'nail' scene.

I was even more surprised to learn afterwards that this was a British production, was shot in Belfast and used a largely British cast, yet had me fooled as to it's New York setting and convincing accents. What more can i say apart from wow, i love this movie? I also realised after that Waz is Saw backwards, and a cynic may say that is opportunistic marketing, but to them i say, see the movie and tell me it doesn't at least give Saw a run for it's money, if not kick it's stupid face off. Saw's ideas were good, but their killer seemed a flimsy afterthought to me. In Waz, the killer and their motives are integral to the plot,(which surprises before a satisfactory ending)and it's hard not to find empathy for the killer, something i never got in Saw. The great script and acting add depth and character to the story, which hit me with surprises and left me feeling contemplative, which is unusual for horror today.

Verdict: Come for the torture, stay for the good movie

Interesting British-made thriller that borrows heavily (or is that steals?) from Se7en and Saw. Melissa George is cop trying to unravel a series of gruesome murders in New York with her gruff partner, Stellan Skarsgard. Somebody is bumping off several of the city's gang bangers and their loved ones and carving an equation onto their stomachs. The plot covers very familiar ground as the two very different detectives try to identify the killer. George does her best but her character is poorly defined - a bit more background should have been shown. Skarsgard is almost laughable in his attempt to be tough and cool, he merely comes across as being unintelligible. What makes this film different is the surprisingly good cast (Selma Blair, Tom Hardy, Ashley Walters, Sally Hawkins) who turn up. The final plot twist in the last 15 minutes is far-fetched and feels like a sensationalist tabloid headline. Tries to take a novel approach to the torture-porn genre by raising some interesting Darwinian questions but ultimately fails under its own pretensions. It's not hard to see why this went straight to DVD. Nice try though.

"Possibly the most violent film ever" and "Saw by way of Se7en" announce the critical blurbs on the DVD cover. Sounds promising, I like both of those movies and Stellan Skarsgård's work, so a rental was an easy choice, it being the Halloween month and all. In the end, there is a lot to like in w Delta z (which will from now on be referred to as "wAz" for simplicity's sake), at least for thriller fans with strong stomachs.

Like many serial killer tales, wAz (also known as The Killing Gene) follows two detectives as they investigate a series of gruesome murders of brutal lowlife figures in a big city. All the cases are connected with a mathematical equation featuring the eponymous "w delta z" carved into the flesh of the tortured and disfigured bodies. With the combined skills of a hardened veteran cop Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) and an idealistic rookie Helen Westcott (Melissa George), the murder spree starts unwinding and soon appears to be related to Eddie's past as a dirty cop...

Right from the first scene it becomes obvious that wAz is a strongly visual film. The nocturnal streets of the city are lit with beautifully designed lighting, the foremost ruling colour being strong green. Yellow is also utilized in creating a sinister mood during the numerous night scenes, while the day scenes are often tinted cool blue or urban gray. Despite the excellent cinematography, the hectic camera work never allows the viewer to properly relax and enjoy the visuals. The constant shakycam roaming is always a sure opinion divider; personally, I don't mind the technique if it is used tastefully, but in wAz it often feels more annoying than atmospheric. Generally speaking, long static shots force the audience to focus on what is happening on the screen without giving them a chance to hide between the shaking and quick cuts to different angles. This kind of raw presentation style free of distractions could have fit in this movie excellently, although then the violent scenes would probably have rocketed the age rating through the ceiling.

Speaking of the violence, it is detailed and plentiful (though doesn't exactly live up to the quote at the beginning of this review): blood, burns, cuts and other kind of injuries are given a decent amount of attention over the course of the story. The final scenes could be straight from the Saw series, while the more atmospheric investigation scenes derive more from David Fincher's suspenseful serial killer cat and mouse chase Se7en (1995), right from the relationship of the protagonists (veteran + rookie, although this type of dramatic pairing has been used for a long time) to the handsomely designed end credits.

The visuals and violence are not the only strengths of wAz, since the acting is generally very strong too. The charismatic Skarsgård oozes menace as the gruff, hardened Eddie Argo who still carries a well-hidden softer side and a sense of righteousness under the tough surface. Melissa George's role didn't strike me as memorably, although I've seen less convincing performances in this type of "woman in a rough manly environment" roles. Most of the supporting actors are top-notch as well, particularly Tom Hardy as the sadistic street boss Pierre Jackson and Paul Kaye as the nerdy, nervous scientist Dr. Gelb who first introduces the detectives to the eponymous Price equation that eventually turns out to have an important effect on the killer's motivations. The references to animal behaviour and selfish genes are basically interesting but ultimately don't connect with the killer in a very convincing way. Part of it may have to do with certain actress's performance as the murderer (her identity is revealed relatively early on, so I don't think it's much of a spoiler to mention her gender here); the idea of such a fragile woman executing the gruesome acts all by herself is a bit hard to swallow.

At the end of the day, wAz is a very watchable combination of the thriller and the now-trendy torture porn genres. The wallowing in urban filth and examining the justifications of vigilantism have been done before in a more suspenseful way (comparisons to Se7en must be drawn once again), but for fans of the genre this one is recommended viewing as well. Others may wish to choose something else to watch altogether.