Directed By Kirill Sokolov

Starring – Zazie Beetz, Myha’la, Patricia Arquette

The Plot – Ex-prisoner, Asia (Beetz), takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise, unaware of the building’s history of disappearances. She soon realizes the community is shrouded in the mystery of being a satanic cult, and that she represents their next sacrifice

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, adult language and brief sexual content/nudity.

They Will Kill You | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

To the untrained eye, They Will Kill You might seem like a derivative successor to Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, especially considering they share such specific plot threads, but while their similarities start and end with their respective outlines, Sokolov’s film distinguishes itself in the overall technique of its execution, breeding tangibility into the Grindhouse slashers of the 70’s, where the bloodier the better, even to the point of satisfying hilarity. This film has no problems living up to that criteria, as its energetically enthralling and ruthlessly brutal fight sequences are aided by kinetically seamless fight choreography that not only firmly keeps the attention of the audience on the many swift and impactful actions that its characters inflict upon one another, but also brings with them an abundance of practically enacted effects work that spew blood and lacerate limbs like a war film on steroids, helping to articulate this infectiously unapologetic hard R-rated atmosphere where anything feels possible in a movie that hurls the book of reality out the window within its opening fifteen minutes. While the fights themselves might be the alluring aspect why audiences seek out the movie, it’s really the cunning filmmaking behind the lens that articulates such boldly challenging shots that reminded me of Sam Raimi in his prime, particularly Isaac Bauman’s surveilling motions and unique camera placements of cinematography that sets it apart from other movies attempting to evoke the maintained tension of The Raid movies, where despite so much velocity transpiring on-screen, Bauman never loses sight of the methodical consistency that spans with sleekly sedative motions, giving us thorough detectability among the surprisingly unforeseen balance of back and forth that leaves no character flawless from the brunt of brutality. The production also spends a pretty penny fleshing out the upper-class elegance of the singular setting itself, both with radiantly unorthodox color schemes and Bohemian furniture luminating so much three-dimensional textural personality among its lavish tastes, with more meaningful detail than you would expect from an action movie primed by vulgarity. While it would be easy to fall under the minimizing of maintaining one consistent scheme throughout the high-rise’s many floors, there’s actually an intoxicating versatility that caters exclusively to the specificity of each floor, the further you get into the narrative, and considering the contrast between horrifying violence and posh surroundings makes for such a transforming influence over the terror conjured by this mysterious visitor, it elicits the restlessness of the atmosphere in ways that mirror the perfection of Sokolov’s and co-writer, Alex Litvak’s pacing for the storytelling, maintaining a breathtaking beat-neck consistency throughout 90 minutes of the engagement that never has a chance to overstay its welcome. Speaking of the storytelling, while it would be easy enough to summarize this film as all style and no substance, there’s actually an ample amount of development with the characters and their respective backstories that satisfies the movie’s emotional element of sibling subplot where Ready or Not 2 couldn’t keep up, mainly in the confines of a few flashback sequences that are remarkably able to maintain the urgency of the narrative, despite so much of the second act leaning heavier into them. It makes a huge difference that the chemistry between Beetz and Myha’la is lived in with the kind of bickering banter and initial trepidation that entails some situational resentment in the distancing between them, but it means even more when the script is able to flesh each of them out with corresponding actions that mirror the helplessness in each of their situations, in turn breeding an ample amount of empathy for their dynamic in ways that conjure stakes for a story so surprisingly supernatural. Considering a preconceived fear that I had with the film pertained to a marketing trailer that I misinterpreted as being too overly revealing, there’s undeniably more that meets the eye with the material that kept me faithfully invested and persistently guessing throughout the movie’s entirety, where the briefness of the aforementioned flashbacks never take too much time away from the focus at the foreground of the narrative, instead doubling down on conflict context in ways that give us a deeper sense of knowledge and psychology towards the characters, especially that of Asia, whose fearless ferocity and composure under spontaneity has her feeling like a survivalist set free during a zombie apocalypse. While Beetz has already made a name for herself in the Deadpool franchise and TV’s Atlanta, this truly feels like the role that will send her to the stratosphere, not only with the abundance of physicality demanded in cat-like reflexes, but also the emotional vulnerability of the character’s sisterly underlining serving as the motivation for her mayhem. Beetz’ vitriolically venomous attitude towards her satanic oppressors comes in handy while tapping into the cool factor of the character, without anything that feels unnaturally staged or rehearsed in her deliveries, and with Myha’la’s turn towards Maria feeling like the antithesis of her on-screen sister, with quietly contained deliveries tapping into the traumatic factor that the character experienced at the hands of an abusive father, each of them feel like products of the environments that separated them over the last ten years, helping to make up for the serviceable one-dimensionality of so many of their antagonist adversaries.

NEGATIVES

While this brutally barbaric bloodbath did live up to the seemingly unreachable hype of having to endure months of advertising for it, the flaws of some of its more unfortunate choices did seep into my experiences and interpretation with the product, particularly those paid towards the development of the satanic adversaries, who are given such a compromising plot device during the opening act that saturates some of the stakes away from the magnitude of violence that comes to define the film. As previously commended, the action and sequencing of the fights are out of this world in ways that continuously made me wince with high detectability, but considering they are an essentially endless army that have a supernatural ace up their sleeve to even the playing field with the relentless Asia, it did lessen the meaningful magnitude of what she’s able to accomplish in overcoming so many of them throughout several interactions throughout the night, giving that Superhero feeling that I’ve always hated in movies, where a physical conflict between characters isn’t as investing, on account of one of them being impervious to pain, in turn taking a bit of the on-edge momentum and anticipation of the sequences away with conveniences that basically push the reset button each and every time. Likewise, the flashback sequences also are anything but perfect, with regards to fleshing out the characters, with one such component of the five flashbacks feeling vitally inferior to the rest, that being the high-rise itself. Considering it is the single most fascinating character in this movie, full of more developing questions and theories the longer the film persists into its second hour, so very little of them are thoroughly fleshed out in ways that give us not only a deeper sense of knowledge with the extended history of the residency, but also the logic behind a satanic high-rise being able to evade law authorities during repeated disappearances around the site, and perhaps as a means to leave some meat of intrigue left on the bone for possible future sequels or prequels, the setting itself feels like the single most underdeveloped character of the entire movie, invoking this overextending shadow on the proceedings that grows even more unfulfilling with each additional interesting aspect stitched into the screenplay, with far too much underutilized time in the many decades since its inception not even remotely explored. Finally, in addition to occasional discontent with the movie’s creativity into the characterization, I also found the entirety of the editing to be inconsistent throughout these fight sequences, particularly during some stalled transitions during devastating blows that feel like they reach the depicting exclamation a second too late. It’s undeniable that the action will impress audiences in one way, another, or both, but there are a few lacerating kills throughout these sequences that are so clumsily captured that they practically feel like they happen off-screen to the depiction, and while I understand that sequences that move as abrasively swift in their motions as these are an incredibly difficult thing to stitch together, especially with so many characters involved in them at times, it leaves some blows feeling underwhelming in contrast to others, leaving me wishing that the sequences and their choreography enacted more long-takes in order to transpire more of the captured momentum from script to stage.

OVERALL
They Will Kill You is a blood-soaked, action-packed adrenaline rush that stimulates the senses with kinetic fight choreography and captivating camerawork of the most enveloping immersion, enacting enough on-screen fireworks to make up for its lapses with creativity off-screen that nearly get away from its grip. While the movie successfully evades derivative comparisons, on account of its masterful technique and career-catapulting performance by Zazie Beetz, some of its strangeness comes to numb the stakes and scope of its vengeful angling, with the hearty humanity of separated siblings serving as the soul to balance its spotty slapstick.

My Grade: 7.6 or B