The Hexecutioners – Toronto After Dark 2015

A young woman learns the challenges of her new job of death dealing in The Hexecutioners. Three years ago, proposition 117 passed making assisted suicides legal. Malison McCourt (Liv Collins) is a rookie death dealer, whose job is to perform euthanasia for paying clients, by any means required. Unsure about the moral ramifications of this job, Malison accompanies experienced death dealer Olivia (Sarah Power) to an isolated mansion for their latest job. While at the mansion, Malison experiences ghostly activity, which slowly drives her insane.

The Hexecutioners is the latest film from director Jesse Thomas Cook (Monster Brawl, Septic Man) and is based on a screenplay by writer Tony Burgess (Ponypool). It is hard to say what exactly The Hexecutioners is trying to be, since the film seems to have three story ideas combined into one. The film starts off as a film about the moral ambiguities of legal euthanasia, turns into a ghost story, but also features multiple flashbacks involving some sort of cult. This results in a nonsensical jumble of a plot, which can’t really decide what it wants to be.

I’m going to place all the blame for The Hexecutioners’ faults on Tony Burgess‘ screenplay, as opposed to Jesse Thomas Cook’s directing. On a technical level, The Hexecutioners is a very well shot film, including an interesting scene near the end that mixes black and white and colour. In addition, the mansion where much of the film takes place is a great location. There is a decent film hidden somewhere within the mess that is The Hexecutioners and the film might have been better if it just stuck with one of these story ideas. However, as it stands, the film is a disappointment.