Sophie Verbeeck stars as Tez, a contract killer who has been tasked by mafia heavyweight Charles Mahr (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) to avenge the death of his courier. Mahr has a reason but chooses not to disclose the importance of it to her: he promises the rest of the cash when it is done. Tez is sceptical, but goes along with it, but soon she finds herself fighting for her life. The deeper she investigates the nature of the assignment, the harder it is to pull out of the labyrinth of intrigue. A head will roll, but the question isn’t whose, but “when.”

Schematically, Death Will Come aims to be a female-oriented action film, in the mould of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011), albeit on a smaller, more home-spun scale. Much of this is undone by the gratuitous violence, not least a truly gruesome scene where a gang of men inflict fire on a man’s face. Director Christoph Hochhäusler’s work is hardly sex positive, considering that women undress themselves for men despite their reticence to the task. Whether by accident or design, the finished feature feels unclean: a sleazy portal into the seedy underbelly.

On the plus side, Tez is a formidable invention. She’s hip, modern and intelligent:her wits an asset against burly, beefy men. The character also takes time to enjoy the nice things in life; a flirtation with a barmaid has an obvious frisson. There is much to develop here in potential future sequels, not least her knowledge of artillery which Tez establishes early on in the film by aiming the gun at practice targets.

Where the central character is contemporary, the script and picture are frustratingly clichéd. In an attempt to be arty, the intelligent side character whose purpose is to give exposition conveniently happens to be blind; a trope that has been done to death for centuries. Like other crime films, the gangsters are filmed practicing different types of sports in an effort to make their surreal environment appear more palatable. Chillingly, the film opens up with a black man’s arrest, although the movie never addresses the racial imbalance again. As you may expect, the vast majority of the leads are caucasian.

Death Will Come feels slow and dated where a film like the aforementioned The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – another work that incorporates a contract worker who thrives in the darker side of society – ripples with modernity and ingenuity precisely because it challenges the conventions of female-action cinema. Whatever commentary Hochhäusler intends to impart on society is lost in the finished cut, and Tez aside, it’s hard to relate to any of the characters. They tend to be narcissistic, morally bankrupt or needlessly garrulous in their execution. Whatever setpieces the film indulges in are sullied by visceral, latent violence, a roughness that fails to add anything to the narrative.

Oddly, Hochhäusler feels more comfortable directing some of the comedy setpieces to the more swashbuckling ones. Early on, Mahr is shown a virtual sex doll; the simulated coitus aided by a headset that places the lover headfirst in the toy’s genitalia. Another scene, done at a tavern, shows dancers jiving with careless abandon and gusto. All the while, Verbeeck acquits herself nicely to the role. She is as quick with a catchphrase as she is pulling out a gun, or thrusting an assailant with a gun. There’s a balletic energy that suits Tez, who counters muscular grit with poise and grace. It’s a performance that merits attention, but one that is largely wasted in a film that doesn’t deserve the same level of critique.

Death Will Come premiered in the Official Competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing in the Best of Festivals section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.