This review contains spoilers for They Will Kill You.
You think you’ve heard this story before. A rich family connected to Satan must sacrifice the poor, unfortunate and innocent to keep their deal with the devil, and unfortunately, a young woman finds herself trapped in a building with them and must escape. It sounds a lot like a sequel that just released not too long ago, but They Will Kill You surprisingly sets itself apart from the likes of Ready or Not or any other Eat The Rich movie that you can think of. That’s all due to Zazie Beetz’s overall presence and the stylistic approach that director Kirill Sokolov brings to the movie.
Zazie Beetz has proved time and time again that she’s an actress worth watching movies for; she has a great sense of humour in her comedy films and has highlighted talent within her dramas. It has been a while since we saw her in an action movie, with Deadpool 2 being her first and last appearance kicking ass. They Will Kill You will make you want to see Zazie Beetz as the next frontrunner when it comes to action movies, as she doesn’t only just kick ass in this film, she looks good while doing it.
They Will Kill You follows Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz), who finds herself in the high-rise residence, The Virgil, as a new maid, where she quickly finds out it is a deathtrap and home to a Satanic cult that wants to use her as their next sacrifice.
When going into this movie, the most I knew was that Zazie Beetz was trying to fight her way out of this residence in hopes she wouldn’t be Satan’s next snack. As soon as the film begins, we get a quick rundown on Asia’s backstory and how she was on the run with her little sister, Maria (Myha’la), from their abusive father, but unfortunately one incident led to the next, which separated the two and landed Asia in prison.
10 years later, she’s back out and ready to look for her sister, which brings her to The Virgil. She meets the superintendent, Lilith Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette), who shows her around and to her room. For the most part, everything is looking quite normal. The devil doesn’t waste any time because on Asia’s first night, she’s met with some guests that break into the room in hopes of getting an easy kill.
This action sequence is the exact moment that I leant forwards in my chair, and I likely didn’t lean back until the credits rolled. Kirill Sokolov takes clear inspiration from the Grindhouse era of movies that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez brought us. This action sequence is beautifully choreographed with Beetz wielding shotguns, katanas and throwing hands at all of her enemies, utilising the entire bedroom as her weapon with editing from Luke Doolan that will make you think you’re watching the long-awaited Kill Bill Vol. 3.
What keeps you moving, on your feet, and engaged with They Will Kill You from start to finish is that Sokolov holds onto the gas pedal from the moment the action starts, never letting go, increasing the action and horror as we move along. An action movie quickly becomes boring once the main character is able to tackle everything that’s thrown at them, even when it seems like an impossible match, but we get the complete opposite of that. Asia is driven by the need to rescue her sister from this Satanic cult and will mow down anyone to do so, but even she finds herself in a few mismatched fights where she no longer carries the upper hand.
The supporting cast are just excellent, from Heather Graham, who plays Sharon, to Mhya’la, who plays Maria Reaves; they all really help to make the movie feel engaging and as electric as it is. The reveal of The Virgil’s patrons being immortal added to the humour of the movie as we got sentient eyeballs and shrunken heads but also allowed for the action to hold completely, with no bars on how far it could go.
The Virgil is one of the best set pieces we’ve gotten so far this year, and production designer Jeremy Reed did a superb job of allowing the building to feel like its own character that connects with the action and horror of They Will Kill You. There are many floors in this residence, with one of them being the “fuck floor.” I do wish, though, that they could’ve explored more of the floors before we reached the final act, but that would’ve led to a chunkier runtime, which this movie wouldn’t have benefited from.
They Will Kill You tells you a very surface-level story of a sister trying to rescue her sibling. There’s not much emotion felt with their backstory, and even when it comes to the worldbuilding of The Virgil, its history, and Lilith’s and Ray’s (Paterson Joseph) backstory, Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak never choose to explore any deeper in any of the aforementioned topics and only tell us as much as we need to know to continue enjoying the film. Ray at one point mentions that they used to sacrifice people that deserved it, and his interracial relationship with Lilith almost made for an interesting topic with the racial culture that first led them into essentially making a deal with the devil, but unfortunately, it’s never explored and also never brought up again.
Zazie Beetz has never been more of a badass until They Will Kill You, showcasing her action prowess in what I’d consider an endless gruesome bloodfest as she takes on this gauntlet of immortal Satanic fucks. The writing might not allow for any real emotion to find its way into the movie, but Myha’la is an incredible scene partner with Beetz and allows for there to be stakes in the movie, even if they’re predictable ones. Despite there being a few issues that would normally lead me into calling a movie of this calibre merely okay, I had a fantastic time watching it and would easily call for more original and creative action/horror films such as these that harken back to the good old days of Kill Bill and Evil Dead 2.
