Action horror is not my usual thing. I watch it, I enjoy parts of it, and then I forget it by the next morning. They Will Kill You is the exception. I am still thinking about some of those kills a week later.
Asia (Zazie Beetz) is an ex-convict who answers an ad to work as a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise called the Virgil, not realising she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years. What she finds when she gets there is a devil-worshipping cult of rich, entitled lunatics who have turned the building into a death trap. The goal is survive the night. That is it. That is the whole film. And it is more than enough.
Within minutes the film locks into its premise and basically tells you: yeah, this is going to get violent, just go with it. And I went with it.
It Felt Like a Video Game
This is the best way I can describe They Will Kill You. The building is the level. Each floor is a new area with new enemies and new obstacles. Asia fights her way up, floor by floor, and every room has something different waiting for her. The film does not pretend to be more than this. It knows exactly what it is and commits completely. There is something genuinely refreshing about a film that has no interest in being profound and is absolutely great at being exactly what it promises.
There is a heavy use of practical effects here and they are not trying to hide it. You will see things that feel intentionally old-school and the film does not aim for realism all the time, it aims for impact, and it works. Some of the kills are genuinely inventive. A few of them made me laugh out loud. A couple made me look away briefly and then immediately look back.
The building is the level. Each floor is a new area with new enemies. The film knows exactly what it is and commits completely.
Zazie Beetz
This is Zazie Beetz's show and she pours every ounce of herself into it. She is not only fiercely charismatic but also genuinely menacing in large part due to the intense physicality she brings to the role. She is the reason this works as well as it does. In a lesser film with a lesser lead, the video game structure would feel hollow. Beetz makes you care about Asia just enough to be genuinely invested in whether she makes it to the next floor. That is harder to pull off than it looks.
Patricia Arquette plays the main villain calm, controlled, almost polite. It is that kind of quiet confidence that makes a character more unsettling without needing to shout or overact. She does not have to do much to feel threatening and that contrast against the chaos around her is one of the film's smartest choices. Tom Felton and Heather Graham on the other hand look like they were told to have fun and not hold back. They did not hold back. It works.
A Sequel Waiting to Happen
This film can easily have a sequel. The world is set up for it, the character is built for it, and Beetz has shown she can carry a franchise. Asia surviving the Virgil is just the beginning of what this character could do. If Warner Bros. is smart they greenlight it. The bones are there.
The Verdict
They Will Kill You is not trying to be your favourite film of the year. It is trying to be the most fun you have had in a cinema this month. For me it succeeded.
Not my usual genre. Not a film I would normally go out of my way for. But I enjoyed every single minute of it and I would watch a sequel on opening night. Sometimes that is exactly enough.