The Reel Review
An ex-convict looking for her missing younger sister at a mysterious New York City hotel discovers that it is the home of a deadly Satanic cult whose disciples apparently can’t be killed and have targeted her to be their next human sacrifice. Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette and Heather Graham star in this horror action/thriller.
This is a film specially tailored to its target demographic – gore hounds who love way over the top, bloody action with little regard for a coherent story. And to that effort, They Will Kill You often works, with Beetz, as the one-woman wrecking ball, showing off some impressive fight choreography and Arquette chewing the scenery in a rare, villainous role. One example to illustrate how gleefully violent and silly this movie is: a body part from one of the recently killed but not yet regenerated immortals hops its way through a couple of scenes, eerily reminiscent of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, only way creepier. Um, okay…
They Will Kill You is told in chapters that gradually reveal the back history of its characters. But without any real story or character development, this one-note knockoff of 2019’s Ready or Not (also about Satanists trying to kill a human sacrifice who ends up being a badass fighter) feels more like a repetitive and monotonous video game by its third act, despite ending on a nice, clever twist.
REEL FACTS
• They Will Kill You co-writer/director Kirill Sokolov (No Looking Back, Why Don’t You Just Die!) says he was dead set against making his film too campy.
• Myha’la, who plays the younger sister of Zazie Beetz’s character in the film, is best known for her role of Harper Stern in the HBO MAX series Industry.
• Although set in New York City, They Will Kill You was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa
Video & Photo
