w Delta z (2007)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Tom Shankland

Writer:

Clive Bradley (screenplay)

Release Date:

2007 (Ireland)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Would you kill the one you love to save yourself from death?

Plot:

A calculating killer coerces a detective to pay for his previous mistakes.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Psychological Torment | Moral | Police Car Siren | Modus Operandi

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Barbara Adair	...	Alice Jackson
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Eddie Argo
Peter Ballance	...	Trucker (as Peter Balance)
Selma Blair	...	Jean Lerner
Melissa George	...	Helen Westcott
Tom Hardy	...	Pierre Jackson
Sally Hawkins	...	Elly Carpenter
Lauren Hood	...	Sharon Williams
Caroline Lee-Johnson	...	Gillian (as Caroline Lee Johnson)
'Sean' Brian Jordaan	...	Jamal Osman / Khaled Osman (as Brian 'Saen' Jordan)
Paul Kaye	...	Gelb
Sheila Kerr	...	Alison Lerner
Michael Liebman	...	Wesley Smith
Joshua O'Gorman	...	Dominic Carpenter
Alibe Parsons	...	Miss Allaway

Also Known As:

Waz (UK) (informal title) (USA) (working title)
Devil's Algebra (UK) (working title)
The Killing Gene (USA) (DVD title)
Équation meurtrière (Canada: French title) (DVD title) [fr]
I exisosi (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Venganza Macabra (Peru) [es]
WAZ - Welche Qualen erträgst du? (Germany) (DVD title) [de]
Waz (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Waz (Finland) (DVD title) [fi]
Waz (Norway) (TV title) [no]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong brutal violence including a rape, gruesome images and pervasive language.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:R | New Zealand:R18 | Ireland:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:18 | Finland:K-18 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 | USA:Unrated (DVD rating) | Norway:15 (TV rating) | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Vertigo Films

Goofs:

Continuity: The first time we see the police whiteboard it has "W Delta Z" and "W Delta Z = Cov" written on it (even though no corpse has borne the "v" at that point). But in the next shot the board says only "W Delta Z = Co".

Quotes:

Gelb: Just imagine a hero without a genetic motive. Not a relative, not a potential mate. Now, that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

Movie Connections:

References Day of the Woman (1978)

WAZ (aka The Killing Gene)

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-porn 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.