Kill/Save opens on Digital beginning November 17.
Russian Raid director Den Kryuchkov’s new sci-fi flick, Kill/Save, is… interesting. I can’t really pinpoint it from a social media perspective in the weeks since I did a teaser post, but there’s clearly an audience this film is made for and that made me curious about what this film was and how it delivers.
An English-language European production shot in Catalonia, Kill/Save is set in a dystopian futuristic megacity recovering from a virus that once forced the city into lockdown. The film follows Martin (Matt Testro), a reclusive programmer whose remanded accommodation of an eccentric and vibrant houseguest named Teresa (Stephanie Gil) ensues a burgeoning friendship.
When romance blooms, their prospects are challenged by their dissenting opinions on Metaverse technology. Tensions reach a boiling point and Teresa escapes into her gaming coffin which also happens to be property of the company that Martin works for.
Kill/Save kicks off with Martin already in a months-long spell of doing everything he can on both sides of the virtual plug-in to rescue Teresa, now believing that she’s been purposely trapped in the metaverse by a more sinister entity. However, it’s only a matter of time before Martin finally realizes the real questions have nothing to do with who is keeping Teresa imprisoned or why.
The mystique here with Kryuchkov’s Kill/Save isn’t as puzzling if you’ve watched your share of sci-fi or narrative genre films set in fascistic hellscapes. Themes of self-discovery and determination, and free will are clear and present in the backdrop as the film toggles between Martin’s real-world toils and the digital scrimmages he endures as different characters waging one-man raids unto a castle wherein he thinks Teresa is being held prisoner.
Kryuchkov and co-choreographer and stunt player Oscar Fernandez make firm use of this in applying a fantasy action concept that sees our hero take on multiple versions of warriors to get to the top of the castle. The action itself is a cool feat that tops things off nicely from start to finish, between 1st and 3rd person angles, and Testro showing off his own adaptability to action.
More central to the film’s thematic coverage is AI, and the benefits and detriments of such technology as corporations increasingly foist it onto us. The world in Kill/Save is one in which AI is essentially a fixture in day-to-day life, although it begins taking a backseat as the characters of Martin and Teresa are brought back into focus by the end of the film.
Testro and Gil carry the film really well with their acting and overall performances alongside the rest of the cast, including the actors who toggle as the multiple avis of Martin’s personal AI assistant, Enty, played largely by Eric Goode. Co-star Brian Austin Green gets a brief stint as the head of security for Martin’s company, and whose scenes in the film’s teasers are pretty much the extent of what we get in the film.
Slow-paced at times for the film’s duration, the acting is great and holds up. The flowers, ultimately, go to Kryuchkov and Fernandez in peppering things up throughout the film’s development, and you can definitely point to films like Boss Level and Edge Of Tomorrow as examples of similar, more lively formats. With Kill/Save, you get a more cerebrally-toned contained sci-fi drama with occasional hologram and robot cameos, and a variety of stylish and competent action sequences woven in between.
As an addendum and far from least in closing, that Kryuchkov and his team were able to tell this story and make Kill/Save without a single frame of AI says all you should know, particularly at a time when some filmmakers are choosing to capitulate to big tech. As someone who’s had a hand in the arts since childhood, I’m not a fan of it by any measure, or I would have turned down even pitching this film at all. Indeed, I’d say Kill/Save is worth at least a rental.
