Kill you all - DVD

Film: Only reluctantly can Ben (Brice Williams) be persuaded to accompany his wife Maggie (Mandy Levin) into the wilderness. For she has had enough of the superficial and hectic city life in Los Angeles and is therefore immensely pleased with the suggestion of her friends Alex (Suzy Cote) and Kyle (David Haydn-Jones) to accompany her on a camping holiday in the mountains. In the midst of the desolate wilderness, the two couples meet dropout Birch (Beth Navarro), with whom Maggie quickly feels a very special kind of soul mate. Birch seems to be living exactly the life Maggie is currently longing for. And so she is downright filled with happiness to have exchanged the big city hell for a pure idyll, at least for a short time - not suspecting that real horror is soon waiting for her here...

Kill you all is a project that a group of filmmaker friends have stomped out of the ground for little money. Sometimes the film was shot in the kitchen or in the car of the producer. That the thriller is not a glossy product of a major studio, it is also quite noticeable. The actors seem a bit amateurish in some moments and the staging seems rather simple. If you see the movie as a small indie production of a group of film enthusiasts, you will be able to see the whole thing as quite successful. The somewhat convoluted story isn't particularly original, but the realization is quite exciting. And also the atmosphere established by the locations is engaging and effective.

But not everyone will succeed in judging the film from this point of view. And those expecting a more professionally directed thriller will find little to like from the weaknesses caused by the budget and the limited experience of the makers. The fact that Kill you all was directed with a lot of passion and dedication will unfortunately only interest those viewers who are interested in filmmaking themselves and therefore have some idea of how difficult it is to be able to pull off such a project in the first place. The average viewer will measure the film by other standards and there Kill you all just reveals some very clear weaknesses, which are also difficult to gloss over.

But if you are interested in small, independently produced works by young filmmakers and appreciate their efforts even despite inevitable weaknesses, you can definitely risk a look here. But if you're expecting great actors and pure thrills, you're unlikely to be enthralled by this grueling camping trip.

Picture + Sound:The film's low budget, which naturally led to less than top-notch technical equipment, is also reflected in the picture and sound quality of the DVD conversion. While the picture can convince in the brighter outdoor scenes with a very good image sharpness and a coherent color scheme, some weaknesses can be identified in dark moments such as excessive contrasts or slight blurring in the detail representation. The sound has relatively few highlights to offer even in the DTS mix, but at least has some atmospheric ambient sounds to offer, through which here and there also the surround boxes come into play, in addition to the dialogue mixed well understandable.

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has a very interesting (but unfortunately not subtitled) audio commentary by the actors and producers Brice Williams and Mandy Levin to offer. The two talk in a very relaxed atmosphere about the creation of the project and the sometimes somewhat improvised implementation. This makes this commentary very worth listening to, especially for up-and-coming filmmakers. In addition, there is a very short making of clip, the trailer and other programming tips from the provider.

Conclusion: Kill you all is the passion project of some artist friends, who have provided their professional skills, their money or even sometimes their house as a filming location. So it's not an elaborate studio production, but rather a somewhat professional amateur flick. Judged as such, the film can be quite convincing, but the normal consumer will hardly excuse the not exactly stunningly good acting performances and the shortcomings in directing with it. For those who are interested in independent thrillers and judge their quality by the fact that not the biggest professionals were at work here, the movie can be absolutely recommended. But if you have other criteria and can't overlook the weaknesses caused by budget and experience, you will hardly be carried away by the story

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp