There’s a version of They Will Kill You that I would’ve liked quite a bit more than the one we ultimately got. For about the first forty-five minutes, director Kirill Sokolov wears his influences so openly that it becomes part of the fun. The film is drenched in Tarantino worship, from the geysers of blood and elaborate swordplay to moments that feel lifted straight from the filmmaker’s particular brand of exploitation excess (there may or may not be a shot of a demon licking the toes of a certain heroine). If you like Kill Bill, it’s hard not to have at least a little fun watching Sokolov channel that same chaotic energy, even if he never quite makes it his own.
The setup is also effective. Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) answers a help wanted ad to become a housekeeper inside a mysterious New York City high-rise, only to discover the building is controlled by a Satanic cult. Believing her younger sister Maria (Myha’la), who disappeared years earlier, may still be somewhere inside, Asia fights her way floor by floor through the compound in hopes of finding her before it’s too late.
It’s a premise that immediately reminded me a bit of Evil Dead Rise. Not because the two films are especially similar tonally, but because both understand how much mileage you can get out of trapping characters inside a single high-rise building and forcing them to work their way through increasingly horrifying situations. That “one crazy night” structure gives They Will Kill You a momentum that carries it through much of its first half, and the vertical climb through the towering building makes for a naturally satisfying progression.
It also helps that Zazie Beetz is more than capable of carrying the film. This is a demanding role, requiring her to be both an emotionally grounded protagonist searching for her sister and an action star capable of dispatching cult members in increasingly ridiculous fashion. She sells both sides of the character remarkably well. Even as the movie begins spiraling into stranger territory, Beetz remains the constant that keeps everything from completely flying off the rails. She’s physical when the action demands it, vulnerable when the story slows down, and committed enough that you almost wish the rest of the movie matched her effort.
The action itself is (mostly) what I was hoping for. Sokolov understands that these kinds of movies work best when they stop worrying so much about plot mechanics and simply let chaos unfold. The violence is excessive, relentless, and frequently cartoonish in a way that feels intentional rather than cynical. For a while, I found myself overlooking some of the narrative shortcomings simply because I was having a good enough time watching Asia carve her way through floor after floor of this bizarre high-rise.
Unfortunately, the second half completely loses its footing.
Patricia Arquette spends much of the first hour serving as the film’s primary antagonist, already delivering an accent that never really works and a performance that feels strangely detached from everything happening around her. Somehow, though, she isn’t even the biggest problem. Once the film replaces her with a giant Satanic CGI pig, everything comes crashing down. I genuinely struggled to believe what I was watching. Rather than escalating the tension, the reveal completely deflates it, turning what had been an enjoyably over-the-top action horror film into something that borders on self-parody.
And the visual effects certainly don’t help. Modern action movies have become increasingly reliant on digital effects, but They Will Kill You often feels like it’s using CGI to cut corners rather than enhance the filmmaking. Blood sprays, severed limbs reattach themselves, pig-headed cultists roam the halls, and nearly all of it has an unfinished quality that constantly pulled me out of the experience. It’s disappointing because the practical setups and choreography underneath some of these sequences are genuinely entertaining. They simply become buried beneath layers of effects that do not work. Find a way to accomplish these effects practically or don’t do them at all.
The supporting cast also struggles to leave much of an impression. Arquette never settles into her role, while Tom Felton and Heather Graham are given little more to do than briefly appear for goofy one-liners before meeting predictably gruesome ends again and again. Myha’la and Paterson Joseph fare a little better as Asia’s missing sister and an ally within the building, respectively, but neither character is developed enough to become much more than another piece moving the plot toward its conclusion.
Thankfully, Sokolov at least knows when to get out. At ninety-four minutes, They Will Kill You doesn’t never overstay its welcome too much. Even as the story becomes increasingly unsatisfying, the film has the good sense to wrap things up before it becomes completely exhausting. There’s a skeleton of a movie here that I think could’ve really worked. The contained setting, the relentless pacing, and Beetz’s committed performance all point toward something I’d happily recommend.
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Instead, the explanations, revelations, and climax all move in directions that I found considerably less interesting than the movie I’d been imagining during its opening hour. That’s what ultimately makes They Will Kill You so frustrating. It’s stylish. It’s energetic. It has a lead performance that largely holds everything together. But the further it drifts away from stripped-down action horror and toward elaborate mythology and CGI spectacle, the more it loses what made it compelling in the first place. I had a good enough time with the first half to wish the second had simply stayed the course.
Score: 4/10
They Will Kill You (2026)
- Cast: Zazie Beetz, Myha’la Herrold, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Patricia Arquette
- Director: Kirill Sokolov
- Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
- Runtime: 94 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: March 27, 2026
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