KILD TV (2016)

Directed by William Collins [Other horror films: N/A]

While I wouldn’t call KILD TV a stellar film, I will say that it exceeded my expectations, and ended up being a decently fun movie.

The current rating (disclaimer: this review was written on October 29th, 2021) this film has on IMDb, with 258 votes, is 3.9/10, and that’s just a disgrace. KILD TV may not be overly original, but the plot is sort of fun, and the mystery here is moderately engaging. The gore isn’t great, but it’s also not bad, so I don’t know what people were expecting from the movie to give the film such a low rating.

Taking place overnight at a broadcasting station, the film follows the crew of a local Svengali-type program as they’re killed off one-by-one by a mysterious killer. Like I said, it may not be original, but most of the important characters are decent, and the idea that, when they go on air begging for people to call the police, and the audience thinks it’s part of the program, was a nice touch.

None of the kills are overly memorable, though I did like this one individual who got crushed between two vehicles, and there was another fellow who met a grisly end from a boxcutter. I think KILD TV is more about the story and the mystery of the killer than the gore, but for what they have, it’s not that bad.

I think my biggest detractor is the finale of the film. I don’t mind who the killer turns out to be, but I always hated endings where a character was acting completely normal up to a point, and then, once revealed as the killer, becomes insanely manic. It bugged me in Urban Legend, for instance, and it bugged me a bit here. Otherwise, I did appreciate how they didn’t do some last-second scare – such as the killer opening their eyes and then cutting to the credits – which might be faint praise, but praise nonetheless.

Easily the best performance here is from D.C. Douglas (Isle of the Dead, Deadwater, Killers 2: The Beast, and Aquarium of the Dead), who played the late night Svengali-like host, Dr. Perseco. He was as corny and hammy on-screen as you’d expect from those personalities (reminding me of Trent Haaga in Slices), but outside of character, he was great too. More than anyone else, he tried to keep a calm head and figure out who the killer was, looked for clues, and insisted the group stick together. An all-around great character, Douglas was great here.

Other than Douglas, I don’t know if too many performances stand out. Grace Johnston (Bloodlines) started out a bit shaky, but she grew on me. Jared Doreck (Backstabber) had a fun stoner personality, but didn’t do a whole lot. Others, such as Heather Williams, face the same fate. Astrea Campbell-Cobb has strong and weak moments, and though it took a while, Dan Braverman (The Hours Till Daylight) turned into a pretty solid character.

One thing I wanted to note – being a late night horror presentation, they show clips of a movie throughout KILD TV, but what surprised me is that the movie they’re showing is real, being a 2013 film titled Conjoined. At first, I thought perhaps Conjoined was also directed by William Collins, who directed this film, but that’s not the case. I suspect it’s because both films were made in Texas, and it’s a way to promote the Texas horror scene, which I can appreciate.

KILD TV isn’t likely to win any awards, but I thought it had decent production value behind it, the story was pretty good, the mystery highly appreciated, and though it’s not a great film, I didn’t think it was half bad at all, and I think if you’re a slasher fan, it may have something to offer you.

7.5/10