source: Waz

A group of street trash rape and mutilate a young woman, Jean Lerner(Selma Blair)and this night will come back to haunt all involved as she was forced to murder her own beloved mother or else the suffering would've continued. A grizzled, troubled detective, Ed Argo(Stellan Skarsgård)and his idealist, green, rookie partner, Helen(Melissa George)investigate a series of serial killings where the victims(..all involved with Blair's mistreatment)are forced into a decision to electrocute their loved ones, sacrificing them to cease their own pain and suffering. Into the bodies of the deceased is a symbol(W Delta Z)carved. This style of torture derives from a theory conducted by a scientist named Price where we are, in essence, comprised of selfish genes that have no love or selflessness..they just want to live, regardless of the well being of another. This theory will be tested on all who abused and terrorized Jean that night. But, Ed himself is harboring a secret and it concerns an informer, Daniel Leone(Ashley Walters)who was there that night Jean was brutalized. Helen, the kind of dedicated cop who hates corruption, will poke her nose into the history of these people targeted and learn some unpleasant truths about her partner. Down-beat, disturbing thriller set in an urban hell of crooks, crack-heads, and gangsters with Stellan Skarsgård wearing his misery openly throughout. I think Skarsgård's performance as a detective strung out and tired(..a chain-smoker, he's consistently lighting up)amplifies just how depressing such a career can be, working the streets where the sight and scent of squalor never ends. I think director Tom Shankland(..a director I'll be worth looking out for)successfully visualizes the tumultuous feelings of Ed's precinct, his colleagues' disgruntled feelings towards the harsh environment they must endure day in and day out. Good cast, with George again proving how viable an actress she can be, her cop adding different characteristics to the precinct she has joined. I like how she evolves into a stronger detective by the end of the film from the nervous, uncomfortable cop she started out as. Blair, who has a very small role despite the importance of her character, impresses likewise as a wounded, traumatized victim whose psychology has become warped through such a devastating experience. The revelation involving Ed and Daniel is indeed stunning..but, as the film continues, one can sense that something is rotting away inside Ed and must eventually be confronted. A word of warning, the film is primarily set in crime-infested areas of a city and within a cramped precinct featuring mostly unsavory characters. Very bleak movie with an ending that leaves you pitying the fact that all the events which transpire could've been avoided if a certain accompaniment of scum hadn't committed such horrendous acts to people who didn't deserve it..sadly, this occurs in life everyday, with credit to Shankland for accurately capturing the grimness of it all. But, despite the final result, Jean does find that love exists.

This is by far the worst thriller movie I watched in the last 5 years.. And I've seen The Strangers! The acting done by the 2 lead characters is horrible and you don't feel connected to them during the entire movie. The gangsters hardly feel like gangsters until you find out the truth about them that they raped the the movie's serial killer but it's never explained why they did it. However I have to say that the torturing scene by the end is painful to watch so in that case this movie did something good. I would avoid this movie if I were you because it will be 100 minutes that you'll never get back

When the corpses of a gangster and his pregnant crack * girlfriend surface-he brutally mutilated,she electrocuted-it remains a mystery why 'WAZ' was carved into the girl's belly after her death and when a second pair of bodies is found,one of them marked with the same cryptic letters,the hunt for a serial killer begins.The cynic cop played by Stellan Skarsgard tries to find the tormented serial killer..."W Delta Z" aka "WAZ" is so bleak,hopeless and utterly dark that it's almost suffocating.Its theme of moral emptiness and the scenes of graphic torture will no doubt upset some unprepared viewers.The film is shot almost entirely at night by Morten Søborg of "Pusher" fame.The script by Clive Bradley is intelligent with its central theme of non-existence of altruism and is completely devoid of any light.I simply can't wait for Tom Shankland's bleak survival horror "The Day"(2008).Finally I live for such gritty and ugly cinema like "WAZ".

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-* 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.

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.)

A veteran police detective by the name of Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgard) investigates the bizarre serial murders in the seedy streets of New York City. Eddie is team with a bright female rookie (Melissa George) to find the murderer. While on the case, they find out the victims were forced to kill themselves or kill a life of a loved one to save themselves. They soon realized, this psychopath (Selma Blair) is out for revenge and she won't stop her carnage until her vengeance is done. Directed by Tom Shankland made an intelligent, thought-provoking thriller with moments of brutality and effective moments of graphic violence. Skarsgard, George, Ashley Walters as Eddie's informer and Blair gives strong memorable performances. Originally titled "W Delta Z", "The Killing Gene" is a well made film that wasn't well marketed, it went straight to DVD in most countries and released limited to theaters instead. The picture should found an audience on DVD. The DVD has an dark atmospheric (and grainy) anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The DVD also includes three featurettes, deleted scenes and an trailer. "The Killing Gene" is a harsh, mean-spirited film that is smart and the visual look of the movie is uniquely unsettling (The way this picture should look). A very good film is certainly not for the squeamish and too depressing for some viewers. If you have the stomach for it, this is exceptionally well written by Clive Bradley and it has a couple of unexpected genuine plot twists in the third act. Don't miss it. HD Widescreen. (****/*****).

Unfortunately, I'm afraid this film is destined not to receive the acclaim it fully deserves. Don't watch this film if you are easily put off by sexual violence. Having said that though - I watched the film with my wife & 18yr old niece (both of whom I would describe as sensitive individuals), & they were both impressed with the film whose 18 certificate serves only really to protect from it's sensitive subject matter & is not an indication of overtly graphic violence/gore. We gave the DVD a go one afternoon, not really knowing what to expect. Although the conditions were not what i'd normally regard as conducive to 'horror' viewing (sun creeping through closed curtains), the film instantly had me hooked with the underlying tension which is apparent even from the beginning, and builds right up to it's revealing climax. The whole 'WAZ' equation theory almost becomes insignificant. OK, so you might see the twists & turns coming a long way off, but for me that doesn't affect the film in the slightest. What really makes the film is it's dark simplicity, brilliant direction & solidly real performances from a non-A-list cast. This film is for me what SAW always promised to be but got lost in it's pursuit of 'ever more creative ways to die'. WAZ isn't an in your face gore-fest with fantastically OTT special effects on a massive budget. It's so much more than that - A dark, gritty, highly atmospheric thriller with a dose of real emotion! You will love it or hate it! I hope it's the prior.

Not only does poor old Jean Lerner (Selma Blair) get gang raped, beaten and violated with a broken bottle, but she is also forced to shoot her own mother to end her ordeal and save her own life. The sadistic gang that subjected her to this horror are apprehended by the police, but are allowed to walk free after vital evidence is accidentally destroyed and it is found that violence was used to obtain a confession. Naturally, Jean is more than a little upset. So when the gang members' loved ones begin to turn up dead, with part of a scientific equation carved into their corpses, detective Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) naturally assumes that Jean is out for revenge. Which she is. But she is also attempting to ease her own conscience over killing her mum: by kidnapping each gang member, plus their nearest and dearest, and then giving each scumbag the option of saving their own skin by offing their loved ones, Jean is trying to prove the WAZ equation, which claims that no creature is naturally altruistic. As Argo slowly closes in on Lerner, his partner, rookie cop Helen Westcott (Melissa George) begins to suspect that there is much more to this case than at first meets the eye. A grimy thriller in the vein of Se7en, but one that has an eye firmly fixed on today's torture-* audiences, WAZ features plenty of nastiness, is suitably stylish, and includes the obligatory surprise ending that no self-respecting modern horror/thriller would be seen without. But despite having all the right ingredients, the film isn't as effective as those it seeks to emulate. There are way too many talky scenes that interrupt the flow of the story and only serve to dissipate the tension; nearly all of the characters are unlikeable; the nasty bits leave far too much to the imagination (saves on Make-up FX, I suppose); and the finalé is... well... it's all a bit unbelievable and revolves around the most unlikely pair of cinematic lovers that I think I have ever seen. If you are about to settle down to watch this film, I would like to suggest a drinking game that might make things a little more entertaining: take a drink every time someone gets in or out of a car, or whenever Skarsgård lights up a cigarette, and draws on it with such intensity that the tobacco can be heard 'crackling' as it burns. I guarantee you'll be hammered by the end of the film!

When the body of the pregnant girlfriend of the criminal Wesley Smith (Michael Liebman) is found electrocuted, detectives Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) and Helen Westcott (Melissa George) are assigned to investigate the case. They seek out Wesley with his gang of low-life criminals and Pierre (Tom Hardy), Jamal (Sean Brian Jordaan) and Daniel Leone (Ashley Walters) tell that they have not seen him. They move to a crack alley and the addicted * Elly (Sally Hawkins) tells that Wesley is upstairs. They find Wesley tortured, with two fingers burnt and hanged with the equation W∆Z = Cov + E engraved on his flesh. Then they find Jamal and his twin brother Khaled killed in the same modus operandi and the coroner finds the dissociative anesthetic Ketamine in the autopsy. Helen finds that the only laboratory with the controlled substance available in the area is the one managed by the researcher Dr. Gelb (Paul Kaye). When they arrive, Dr. Gelb explains the meaning of the equation a.k.a. Price equation, which is a mathematical description of evolution and natural selection, i.e., there is no altruism in nature. Their further investigation discloses that Dr. Gelb's former assistant was Jean Lerner (Selma Blair), a young woman that was gang raped by Pierre and his gang and forced to kill her own mother. Due to contaminated evidences, the criminals have never been sentenced. Now she is forcing each rapist to kill the one he or she loves to save himself or herself from death, influenced by Dr. Gelb researches. Further, Helen suspects that her partner and detective Jack Corelli (John Sharian) intentionally destroyed the evidences. "W∆Z" is a solid and dark police story and it is inevitable the comparison with the style and cinematography of "Se7en". The plot is very well resolved, supported by an excellent screenplay, great direction and stunning performances. The gruesome locations are depressive, using a dark cinematography, and the relationship between Eddie and Danny is a surprising twist. The characters are believable, with corrupt police and criminals living in the gray division between law and crime. This is the type of movie in which the killer has good motives for her actions. The plot is clever, raising questions about the existence and meaning of love and evolution of species. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "W∆Z – Matemática da Morte" ("W∆Z – Mathematic of the Death")