They Will Kill You: A Brutally Fun Horror.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years of reviewing films, it’s that the Horror genre has the most consistently original and inventive ideas in the medium. While sequels, reboots and remakes still come out, original concepts like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Jordan Peele’s NOPE and Zach Cregger’s WEAPONS keep me coming back. Most recently, I found myself taken with Kiril Sokolov’s THEY WILL KILL YOU, a Horror-Comedy that’s got a bloody beating heart of originality while paying homage to the films that clearly inspired it.
THEY WILL KILL YOU follows Asia Reaves (played by Zazie Beetz), a young woman who years ago tried to escape her abusive father with her sister Maria (played by Myha’la), but ended up in prison, separated from her for a decade. Now, finally released from prison, Asia has tracked down her sister to a hotel called The Vigil, a place known for mysterious, unexplained disappearances. Posing as a new maid, Asia infiltrates The Vigil, and has to find and rescue her sister. Unfortunately, the rumors of disappearances are all but confirmed as not long after Asia settles in, the guests of the hotel descend on her, trying to kill her. But Asia’s time in prison has made her a fighter, and she came prepared with weapons of her own. Now, it’s a fight to the finish as Asia attempts to save the only family she truly cares about.
THEY WILL KILL YOU branded itself as a knockdown, drag-out action movie, so I was shocked at just how brutal it was when the violence started. What I thought would be something like The Raid: Redemption kicks into high gear almost immediately, with gore and bloody violence rivaling the Evil Dead franchise. Isaac Bauman’s work as cinematographer here definitely evokes Sam Raimi’s classic films, using extreme close-ups to elevate tension just as he did. The film really makes you feel like the walls are closing in, with the camera almost always right up close to the characters – the only exception being during the scenes where Asia is crawling through the vents of The Vigil, where the camera pulls back to show you just how small those vents are.
THEY WILL KILL YOU has some fantastically executed action sequences, from the first desperate struggle in Asia’s hotel room, to a high-stakes battle in a powerless dining room, where the only light comes from the burning axe Asia holds, and the flaming wounds she puts into her attackers. The practical effects involved in the fight scenes make the battles hit that much harder, with brutal consequences for whomever blinks first.
Zazie Beetz gives a phenomenal performance as Asia Reaves. You can really feel the heartbreak at the core of her character. When her sister needed her most, she ran away, and has had to live with that shame for a decade. Now that she’s finally free from prison, she can make up for that mistake – and god help anyone who gets in her way. Zazie Beetz’s physicality in her role as Asia, the capability with which she fights, and the supernatural horrors she endures absolutely make her a new horror icon in my book.
Myha’la puts in a solid performance as well, portraying Asia’s sister Maria. Maria has had to survive for ten years on her own, with an abusive father, and only finding employment with unseemly institutions that more often than not would take advantage of her in more ways than the traditional sense. Maria is a broken woman, emotionally closed off because that’s how she’s been able to survive for so long in a world that clearly doesn’t care about her. Myha’la executes this brilliantly on-screen, and the slow road to her finding a way to trust again is the throughline in this film.
That said, this film wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t have a strong villain, and it has that in Patricia Arquette’s character, Lilith Woodhouse. Lilith is the head of The Vigil, and the head of its Satanic Cult. Her calm, refined demeanor hides a cold disregard for human life – something that makes her character easy to hate. Being a veteran of the Horror genre, Arquette brings a gravitas to the role that makes her a pleasure to watch, especially as all of her carefully laid plans begin to unravel. Harry Potter’s Tom Felton and Twin Peaks’ Heather Graham also provide both levity and tension as two of the members of The Vigil’s cult who either directly or indirectly become comic relief.
The setting of THEY WILL KILL YOU is wonderfully executed. The Vigil, a fictional hotel in New York City, is a nine-floor building where each floor is, by one of the characters’ own admission, “dedicated to a different vice”. In this way, Asia’s quest to save Maria becomes almost mythical in nature, having to navigate through Lust, Gluttony and the like, all the way up to Pride. The Vigil has an undeniably gothic style mixed with the colors and wallpapers of something out of the 1970s, making the hotel a character in and of itself. In a film like this, having a strong setting can make or break your film, and The Vigil absolutely makes this movie.
With that said, THEY WILL KILL YOU is not a perfect film. While I did love The Vigil as a setting, I feel like its gimmick was underused. While we do see Asia go through some of the nine floors, we don’t get to experience all of them – which left me wanting more. And while Tom Felton’s Kevin and Heather Graham’s Sharon are great comic relief, I felt like it would have been fun to see more residents of the hotel from these differently themed floors. Of course, all of these gripes I have with the film likely stem from its smaller budget, which is to be expected for an original concept these days. Perhaps if the film does well enough, we could see a prequel made that expands on what we’ve established here? Really, it’s a testament to how well done THEY WILL KILL YOU is, being that the only issues I have with it is that there wasn’t more of it.
Overall, I still very much recommend THEY WILL KILL YOU. I think everyone involved in this film did a fantastic job with what they had, and I’m hoping this isn’t the last we hear of the writing duo of Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak. Zazie Beetz earns her Scream Queen status here, and I’d love to see her in more films like this. I give THEY WILL KILL YOU an 8.5 out of 10.
