They Will Kill You review: Plenty of blood, but lacking guts

Ten years after being forced to flee her family, abandoning her younger sister to the dubious care of their abusive father, a downcast, destitute Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) arrives to start work as a cleaner at The Virgil, an exclusive New York residential building for the wealthy and reclusive.

But between the fact that the building manager is named Lilith and the whacking great bronze relief of a giant, horned Satan that takes pride of place over the front door, you get the feeling that all is not as it seems.

You may also sense that this won’t be the subtlest film of all time.

And you’d be right on both counts. The Virgil, much like the similarly exclusive NY building The Bramford in Rosemary’s Baby, is absolutely crammed with cloaked satanists, some of whom jump Asia as soon as she’s tucked up in bed for the night. She’s supposed to be their unsuspecting blood offering.

But Asia isn’t exactly what she appears to be, either. She’s fresh out of prison and has entered the building using a stolen identity, to track down her missing sister.

As for subtlety, any remaining hopes of that are swiftly dispelled by a blast of arterial spray as Asia fights back against her attackers, efficiently dismembering the masked villains.

They Will Kill you has a few things going for it and they’re all in evidence in this scene. There’s the film’s winning way with over-the-top gore, some enjoyably inventive camerawork and a magnetic central performance from Zazie Beetz, which is what really holds the whole thing together.

Beetz’s Asia is an ass-kicking heroine in the Tarantino mould, right down to the sword that’s her weapon of choice (not to mention her prominently displayed bare feet).  

While director Kirill Sokolov borrows unashamedly from Tarantino when it comes to tricking out his film with stylistic flourishes and foot cameos, the homage unfortunately doesn’t extend to creating memorable dialogue or characters.

Apart from Beetz, the supporting cast is given precious little to work with. Myha’la, phenomenal in TV financial thriller Industry, barely registers as Maria Reaves. The scenes between the two sisters, which should ground the film emotionally, just don’t hit. It’s as though Sokolov raced through these to get back to the meatier business of chopping off heads and setting things on fire.

Equally, it’s hard to focus on any scenes featuring acting stalwarts Patricia Arquette and Paterson Joseph, who play Lily and Ray, the married couple in charge of the building, as they’re burdened with outlandish accents that should have been jettisoned before filming began.

There’s not much to the plot, either. Much like Ready Or Not, it’s simply about the heroine’s survival through the night, while trapped in a building and stalked by heavily-armed satanists (how is this becoming a sub-genre?). But unlike that rival film, there’s never any sense of peril, any real scares or atmospheric eeriness.

True, there’s fun to be had watching the cultist baddies, including Heather Graham and Tom Felton, get repeatedly mashed up, there’s an entertaining sequence with a sentient, torn-out eyeball that spies on Asia, and the final boss reveal is unexpectedly innovative. But even at a nippy hour and a half, the film seems to goes on longer than it needs to.

Should you watch They Will Kill You?

They Will Kill You opens with the quote: “When the poor give to the rich, the devil laughs.” It seems to promise the kind of satire we’re in need of right now, but doesn’t deliver much more than flying kicks and comedy gore.

Horror fans will have seen it all before, and better, but those who tend to avoid the genre might find the lack of scares a plus. And everyone is likely to agree that Zazie Beetz is the best thing in it, although the eyeball comes a close second.