‘They Will Kill You’ Review
Stars: Zazie Beetz, Myha’La, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Patricia Arquette | Written by Alex Litvak, Kirill Sokolov | Directed by Kirill Sokolov
Russian director Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) makes his English-language debut with this splattery horror about a woman trying to rescue her sister from a hotel full of supernatural Satanists. As such, it has a handful of inventive, fun moments, but it’s ultimately undone by its own premise.
They Will Kill You opens with a rain-drenched prologue in which Asia Reeves (Zazie Beetz) nearly kills her abusive father and goes on the run, but is forced to leave her younger sister behind. Ten years later, Asia gets out of jail and lands a job at a hotel called The Virgil – run by mysterious manager Lilly (Patricia Arquette) – after following a lead that her sister (now played by Myha’La) is working there as a maid.
Things quickly take an unexpected turn when masked attackers break into Asia’s hotel room and try to kill her, but it turns out ten years in prison can give you serious fighting skills, so Asia is more than capable of defending herself in gloopily murderous fashion. However, Asia gets more than she bargained for when the attackers she kills are mysteriously resurrected and come after her again. And again. And again.
Essentially, the rest of They Will Kill You involves Asia killing the same small handful of people (including Heather Graham and Tom Felton) over and over again, while searching for her sister in the hotel. The resurrection is explained fairly early on as a result of a pact with the Devil, so the final act adds an additional element that just about works, but otherwise this is frustratingly repetitive.
Leaving aside the issue of Patricia Arquette’s dodgy Irish accent (which hasn’t improved much in the 30 years since she first butchered it in The Secret Agent), the main problem with the film is that it peaks too soon. The initial attack sequence is a lot of fun, with delightfully inventive, stylish and funny kills, but nothing that follows comes close to hitting that initial high.
On a similar note, the resurrection concept backfires because the film doesn’t do anything interesting with it. Worse, the small handful of attackers – including the likes of Tom Felton and Heather Graham – aren’t given any real personality in the script, so it quickly gets boring, seeing the same dull characters pop up, get killed, and pop up again.
On the plus side, the fight sequences are nicely staged, with Beetz (who apparently trained for four months) clearly doing a fair bit of her own weapon-wielding and fight work. To that end, Sokoluv isn’t exactly subtle about his influences – it’s basically a mash-up of Kill Bill, Old Boy and The Raid, with a bit of Evil Dead thrown in.
It’s also fair to say that while the supporting cast are painfully underused (alongside Arquette, Graham and Felton, there’s also Paterson Joseph, who gives the film its title), Beetz herself is fabulous, radiating movie star energy and giving Asia a palpable fierceness that’s very effective. By contrast, Myha’La is a softer screen presence and very likeable, but the script misses the opportunity to really have them play off each other.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about They Will Kill You is that it has the occasional dash of brilliance, as in both the aforementioned opening fight scene and later, a stand-out sequence involving a disembodied eye, rolling around the hotel in pursuit of Asia. It’s just a shame that the rest of the film falls so short in comparison.
Ultimately, there is just about enough here to make it worth your while. Still, overall, it’s a disappointing mix of brilliant moments and then long, repetitive stretches where everything could and should have been better.
**½ 2.5/5
They Will Kill You is in cinemas now.
