It keeps on killing to the point of exhaustion.
“They Will Kill You” has a near similar set-up as the “Ready or Not” movies, particularly last week’s sequel, as it involves a Satanic Cult, their ritual, and an estranged sister-sister relationship. I wanted to like this movie for a lot of elements it goes after-Wes Anderson inspired sets and color palettes, Quentin Tarantino inspired violence, carnage, and close ups, and some “Beetlejuice” inspired special effects-but I have to go against it for being too easy and too arbitrary.
A movie of its kind should have fun with the blood and gore, and it should use the right leads to fight against whatever Hellish game is in play. But it all goes so fast that you don’t even get to know more of the killers or what makes them so distinctive. It’s like the movie doesn’t want to get to know more about them. And when we’re focused on the good girls, it feels like they’re following the “How to Mend Your Family Relationship” guide book.
Zazie Beetz has specialized in the carnage genre before with “Deadpool 2” and “Bullet Train,” and she does what she can here as the soon-to-be sacrificial main heroine Asia Reeves. She is an ex-convict who served time in prison for trying to kill her abusive husband, and now seeks a job as a housekeeper at a New York high rise known as the Virgil. She’s greeted by the Irish superintendent Lilith (Patricia Arquette), her drunken husband Ray (Joseph Patterson), and one of the residents Sharon (Heather Graham), while the rest of the staff are in yellow outfits, the hallways are green or aqua, and there’s one rude little boy in the mix.
When Asia takes a hot shower, the foggy mirror tells the audience the title of this movie and tries to warn her: “They Will Kill You.” And in the middle of the night, Sharon, Kevin (Tom Felton), and others I can’t name try to kill her. She fights back and kills them, and it looks too easy. But even if she stabs them or cuts off their heads, they are able to regenerate, as they are part of a Satanist cult, and Lilith is their leader. So, whoever has his or her head cut off is able to detach it back on, and who ever has their head completely blown off, their eye ball will move like a practical “Beetlejuice” prop and their head will look shrunken like they just entered the afterlife waiting room.
And the reason why this movie has the estranged sister-sister relationship is because Asia abandoned her younger sister Maria (Myha’la), who works as a maid at the Virgil. And you better believe these two will argue with FUs and later collaborate against the Satanists. I think this is the second new movie out this week where argumentative girls must team up to fight the bad guys and rely on four letter words to solve their problems. And that other movie was “Pretty Lethal” on Amazon Prime Video.
“They Will Kill You” was co-written and directed by Kirill Sokolov, a Russian filmmaker making his English-language debut, and produced by brother and sister Andy and Barbara Muschietti. I get that he wants to turn this kind of Satanist battle into a Tarantino movie with the stylized action and cursing, but he ends up overdosing on the fights and cliches, and they seem like cartoons. The devil the high rise residents and staff must make the human sacrifice to is a CGI pig’s head with James Remar’s voice, and I’m surprised Asia didn’t call him Porky Pig. Not much jokey sadism there.
Looking at this movie’s production design of the Virgil is more interesting than what the ritual and fights unfold. And I still can compare this movie to “Ready or Not,” and how they handle the main heroine and the people trying to kill her. And even the sequel with the subtitle “Here I Come” had a lot more potential and going form. And a lot more blood.
