Some of the best kinds of horror movies are the ones where you squirm in your seat in disgust and look over at your peers to check if they’re feeling the same sentiment. Or moreso, where the activity of going to the movies is an experience in itself. They Will Kill You, directed and written by Kirill Sokolov, is one of those movies.
Asia (Zazie Beetz) and Maria Reaves (Myha’la) have run away from their abusive father after the death of their mother. When their father finds them in a convenience store, he chases them down before Asia shoots him and flees the scene, leaving Maria behind.
We jump to ten years later, where Asia has spent the last decade in prison for her crime. And what’s her first point of call after being released? An esteemed hotel in Manhattan called The Virgil, with a demon sculpted right above the entrance. After taking note of the strange decor, she rings the doorbell and introduces herself to a curious woman as the new cleaner. The odd woman being Lilith Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette), who turns out to be the manager of the hotel.
On Asia’s first night, she is relentlessly attacked by four people wearing black cloaks and pig masks, including characters played by Tom Felton and Heather Graham. But what they didn’t expect was for her to fight back, where she ends up killing these people with a shotgun and a machete she had in her suitcase. Much to her absolute disbelief, she watches them come back to life, as their skin and tendons join at the seams.
In hoping to find and reunite with her sister, she unknowingly walked right into a Satanic Cult of the immortal.
It’s hard not to compare the movie to Ready or Not, especially since the sequel came out just last month. It is also difficult not to notice the fact that it seems to follow a very similar plot. A satanic cult out to get the innocent, stuck in a death trap with no escape, with two estranged sisters reuniting to fight a devil obsessed cult, in an eat the rich type of genre? It’s all eerily familiar. But this movie differs slightly from the iconic horror.
The first action sequence was brilliant. Beetz is electric on screen and so captivating; so much so that you immediately believe that she is strong enough, and skilled enough, to fend off anything that comes her way. She was also fighting everyone while barefoot the entire time, an achievement in itself if you ask me.
Her first on screen kill being a decapitation of Kevin (Felton) was a shock, and gave viewers a little taste of gruesome and ridiculous kills throughout the movie. Thanks to the element of immortality, Sokolov had the opportunity to play around to the extreme, with limbs flying everywhere (literally). Though the other fights weren’t as amusing and well choreographed as the first sequence where she’s attacked by the four rich folk in pig masks, the axe scene in the dining hall might be a close second to add to the pure chaos of the movie.
This movie feels comical, and not just in the sense of the killings. The style of the film feels closer to comic books, anime, and even video games. You almost feel embedded into their world, with the sharp and inventive kills, superimposed text on screen, and surreal action sequences. We go through the movie defeating villain after villain until we reach Satan himself, the familiar set up in video games where players level up by defeating enemies until they reach the final boss. It also reminded me of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in the way it presents itself as more of a visual spectacle, with a little bit more violence of course.
While it feels a little bit too familiar to movies and tropes we’ve seen before with nothing really new being added into the mix, They Will Kill You is full of energy and an over the top bloody gore fest, but most importantly it was a lively cinema experience. Would I have liked the movie as much if I were at home by myself? Maybe not. But being in a cinema full of people there for the love of the movies made it that much better.
