Zazie Beetz (Atlanta and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die) gets to go full-on Uma/The Bride in They Will Kill You, the English-language debut of Russian director Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!).
It’s Beetz’s most physically demanding role yet as her character finds herself fighting for her life basically from the film’s beginning to its bloody end. Sokolov—stylistically borrowing from Tarantino (Kill Bill), Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) and the John Wick films—weaves together a freaky and ultimately entertaining revenge yarn.
After spending years in prison and learning to fight like a maniac, Asia (Beetz) goes on a quest to rescue her sister, Maria (Myha’la), from a mysterious high-rise residence employing her called The Virgil. Posing as a new employee, Asia has a cordial meeting with her new boss, Lily Woodhouse (a beautifully despicable Patricia Arquette). After Asia is shown to her living quarters, it doesn’t take long for her to find out her job has lousy perks and really sucks.
Turns out the residents are a bunch of evil assholes, and Asia must fight to protect herself, find her sister, and get the hell out of there. This all leads to an unrelenting series of very bloody action sequences that borrow heavily from the aforementioned directors. Sokolov and Beetz make it all come together in a fun, seriously demented way.
There are some fun faces sprinkled among the evil residents, including a funny Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy of Harry Potter). To describe the residents in any detail would give too much away, but some of the mayhem gets so disgusting that it reminds of the ultimate movie gore fest, Peter Jackson’s unhinged Dead Alive.
There are some big twists that caught yours truly off guard, much to my filmgoing glee. Avoid trailers and spoiler-rich reviews on this one, and allow yourself to be gob smacked.
Even though They Will Kill You isn’t very original, it is far from disposable. Sokolov has a command of splatter horror and action that genre-fiends will appreciate. As a fiend, I wouldn’t mind seeing another chapter featuring Asia.
(Beware: There are spoilers in the trailer below!)