They Will Kill You

A young woman tries to keep herself and her estranged younger sister alive as a horde of wealthy Satanists hunt them down over the course of a comedically violent evening. Oddly enough, that’s the premise of two new movies in theaters this month, and the latest, They Will Kill You, dazzles with technique before grinding into monotony.

Director Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) is clearly a student of international genre cinema, with references to gonzo Japanese and Italian action and horror movies evident in the exhilaratingly jarring cuts from editor Luke Doolan (The Underground Railroad) and in every rack-focus and split-diopter from cinematographer Isaac Bauman (the upcoming Faces of Death). But beyond all that flash, there needs to be a story, characters, stakes, something to engage the audience. Instead, we get tons of fight choreography and tongue-in-cheek gore — much of it impressive, granted — but it’s not enough to keep the narrative afloat.

Zazie Beetz stars as Asia, who arrives at legendary New York apartment building The Virgil to take a housekeeping gig, although she’s really there to rescue her younger sister Maria (Myha’la, Industry) from the human-sacrificing devil-worshippers who live there. After years in jail, serving time for shooting their abusive dad, where she learned the art of facing multiple combatants at once — like something out of The Raid — Asia is ready to take on any and all rich creeps who would get in the way of her mission.

Not a bad premise for a film and, like The Raid, the screenplay by Sokolov and Alex Litvak (Predators) offers a built-in video-game structure, whereby our hero must survive level after level before facing off with the Big Boss. But classics like The Raid understand the subtle art of making each fight distinct, whether through combat style or weaponry or physical layout of the space. Much of They Will Kill You involves Asia taking on a handful of faceless opponents (they’re often wearing masks) inside various hotel common areas, and the sameness of those brawls drains the life out of them as redundancy takes over. Chief among her maskless opponents are Tom Felton and Heather Graham, but they get little to play beyond a requisite blond smugness.

The writers occasionally insert a bold concept — a Sam Raimi-esque bit of body-horror slapstick that gives new meaning to the phrase “wandering eye,” for example — but not often enough; nor do they give the energetic and luminous Beetz enough material for her to build an actual character, in spite of how she physically and emotionally throws herself into every scene. Patricia Arquette’s presence reflects a somewhat diminished sense of commitment, as she serves up one of the least convincing Irish accents in recent film history.

The film’s best moments are an outlandish pleasure, far outshining the highlights of the similarly-plotted and mostly by-the-numbers sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. But the latter at least maintains a consistent level of energy from start to finish. The initial dynamism on display in They Will Kill You contracts and collapses. Death be not dull.

Director: Kirill Sokolov
Screenwriters: Kirill Sokolov & Alex Litvak
Cast: Zazie Beetz, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Patricia Arquette
Executive producers: Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, Carl Hampe, Alex Litvak, Kirill Sokolov
Producers: Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Dan Kagan
Director of photography: Isaac Bauman
Production design: Jeremy Reed
Editing: Luke Doolan
Music: Carlos Rafael Rivera
Sound design: Jeffrey A. Pitts, sound designer/supervising sound editor
Production companies: New Line Cinema, Nocturna, Domain Entertainment, Warner Bros.
In English
94 minutes