Kill The Cat: Written Review

Kill The Cat

Written Review

Hi everyone and welcome to MyIndie Review Vlog, the show that gives you spoiler-free reviews of indie films. My name is Asaf Angel from MyIndie Productions.

Today I’ll be reviewing 2017 feature crime-drama-thriller Kill The Cat, directed by U.S. indie filmmaker, Mitchell Kenneth Perera who co-wrote the screenplay with Brandon Lunzman.

Thank you, Mitchell for sharing your film with us.

Knox, Lance, Shane, Alex, X and Graham, portrayed by Caulin Donaldson, Thomas Donahue, Josh Cummins, Heaven Needham, Rickey Lee and Brandon Lunzman are a group of drug-addicted teens whom we see rushing into hiding at a crack-house after having robbed a base of operation belonging to local drug-lord Roscoe, played by Perera himself.

The story takes place during a single night while hiding from Roscoe and his men, as well as from the police.

As the plot progresses, we learn details involving a rival drug lord, Leo a.k.a Barefoot – Brian Mason, who is Knox’s uncle and the man who commissioned the heist.

As the teens lay low, they start to show worrisome signs of addiction withdrawal, which further ignites friction between them. It becomes clear that the robbery did not go as planned as through all the commotion, the loot (both the money and the drugs) turned up missing. Our characters become more and more suspicious that one or a few of them might have kept the take for themselves.

With certain similarities to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, the plot has a chronological core which focuses on the interactions between the group members while they hide in the crack house, but to unveil how circumstances came about, Perera incorporates flashbacks of recent events from before, during and after the robbery took place, thus showing the plot in a nonlinear fashion.

The film is mostly dominated by a tense and amplified vibe. One character that stands out is Alex, Heaven Needham, the girl of the group who gave an excellent performance. She possesses a tough and fearless personality, which differs from almost all the other characters. It feels her mostly cool and calculated behaviour helps to show just how lost and dysfunctional the others are, by comparison.

Perera gave emphasis to drug-related misfortunes, maybe not as social commentary, but as the catalyst that degenerates the moral compasses of our characters. It gives the story a more interesting spin. These kids are supposedly best of friends, but they are also drug addicts, so we can see what happens when a substantial supply of drugs and money get thrown into the mix.

As indie films go, Perera made this film for an extremely low budget of USD15,000 according to IMDb, yet he did make sure to give it a unified look. He used contrasted lighting, comprised of what seemed to be hard shades of red and blue. Perera was also bravely generous with moving-shots and one-shots to cover intricate sequences. The fight sequences were also performed at a high standard for an indie film.

I had some issues with choices made regarding the actions, decisions and motivations from certain characters, as well as locations of certain scenes that didn’t make enough sense to me with respect to the story, but I am aware that in indie filmmaking, tough decisions often need to be made, as I am sure took place with this production.

Having said that, Perera and his team achieved a substantial feat given the fact that this is his first feature after a slew of shorts and more importantly; he would have been only nineteen or twenty years-old when completing the film in 2017.

Kill The Cat gets a 7/10 on the Look At Me, I’m A Film Critic scale

The film is currently being re-edited and re-packaged in preperation for a festival run.

Until next time, keep supporting indie film. Watch, share, spread the word. My name is Asaf Angel, I thank you for tuning into MyIndie Review Vlog. I’ll see you next Thursday!