Thriller Research - Kill Bill 2

Institutional Information

Kill Bill II

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Date of release: 23rd April 2004

Country Made: USA

Awards: Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 9 wins & 38 nominations

Genre: Action/Thriller

Leading Actors/Actresses: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu


Audience Response

Kill Bill 2 grossed $152,159,461 worldwide and was not as successful as volume 1. It generated mixed reviews, but over all the film was deemed a success.

External Reviews

“There is much to admire but little to love. Tarantino is not a director who engages on an emotional level (I doubt he engages much with real life). The most gripping moments of Kill Bill 2 are commandeered by Carradine in black-and-white moments in the El Paso church the day before Thurman’s wedding.

Morally the film is as infantile as its rigid code of honour — and there’s not much of that between hired assassins, or directors and critics. The Midas touch is Tarantino’s ability to switch mood and genre — and take his audience with him — in the blink of an eye.
The climax of this blood-soaked odyssey, with its Sergio Leone standoffs, bleached John Ford landscapes, Hitchcockian sense of noir, Ang Lee high-wire tricks, refrigerated Clint Eastwood anger and self-referential importance, is the Dr Frankenstein belief in its own importance. Ultimately, this is a film about an obsession with film. It’s made by a man clearly deranged by trivia, but also an artisan who can pluck something unique and exciting from the collision of two (or ten) completely different genres.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Tarantino is his refusal (or inability) to discriminate between art forms. One puff of cold reality and this house of cards will fold. But Tarantino never allows us a decent interval to draw that fatal breath”

By James Christopher – The Times

Kill Bill 2 has received 138,000 user ratings on the Internet Movie Database with the average score 8.1 out of 10. 25% of those who have rated it have awarded it 10 out of 10, showing that it definitely has a loyal fan base. Men and women seem to have enjoyed it equally, with the same average rating from both sexes.

The Burial Scene – Chapter 7



Although arguably Kill Bill is an action film, it does have many aspects that could relate it to the thriller genre. Quentin Tarantino is a film lover and is inspired by many thrillers of the past and this has allowed him to borrow ideas and pay homage to these motion pictures in his films.

One scene in particular that I believe has many thriller connotations is the scene in which Uma Thurman’s character Beatrix Kiddo is being buried alive by two of the criminal characters.

The scene is set in a graveyard in the dead of night, which usually would imply a horror setting, yet other Tarantino uses other conventions to convey a thriller theme. The secluded and isolated location of the graveyard for instance is a definite thriller convention. The coffin Beatrix is buried in a claustrophobic space giving the scene a sense of entrapment which is again a common thriller concept.
The two characters are un-glamorous and appear dirty, one drinking beer, a low-life hill-billy-esque connotation is made. Beatrix appears beaten, dirty and bleeding all which add to the un-glamorous indications.
Tarantino uses low angle shots of the evil men to show Beatrix’s perspective. This makes the men appear more threatening and stronger than Beatrix is, as she is tied up and on the floor. Another common shot type in the scene - and in thrillers collectively - is the close up. On the characters these help to engage with the characters, helping to show emotion and on objects they help to inform the audience of what is going on in a blunt fashion.

Sound is very important in the scene. The music of the scene stops and starts in varying places. When the coffin is being nailed shut the western music (which is an intertextual reference as it is the music from the 1964 western film – The Good the Bad and the Ugly by Sergio Leone, a film which Tarantino is paying homage to in the scene) is apparent, though it cuts out suddenly when the coffin is completely shut. This leaves just the diegetic sound of Beatrix panting and moving around in the coffin, as well as the Non-diegetic sound of the men shovelling in dirt on top. When the scene concludes later on in Chapter 8 the music commences once again, this time when she is finding her strength to break free from the coffin’s hold, this heroic achievement references to the Clint Eastwood character in the Good the Bad and the Ugly who can also defy any obstacle, and become victorious.

Throughout the scene the lighting is chiaroscuro, relating to the dark feel of the event. When Beatrix is in the coffin at first, there is no light in the scene. Darkness encompasses everything and we as the audience see the experience from her point of view. When she turns the torch on for the first time there is noir lighting with chiaroscuro effect. This noir lighting could be another intertextual reference to one of Tarantino's favourite directors: Alfred Hitchcock who used it regularly. This torch helps to exaggerate suspense and to provide the chiaroscuro lighting.