Shadows on the Wall | They Will Kill You

They Will Kill You

dir Kirill Sokolov
scr Alex Litvak, Kirill Sokolov
prd Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Dan Kagan
with Zazie Beetz, Myha'la, Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, Tom Felton, Paterson Joseph, Armando Rivera, Gabe Gabriel, Darron Meyer, Chris van Rensburg, Lindzay Naidoo, Megan Alexander
release US/UK 27.Mar.26
26/US New Line 1h34

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Playfully diving into a riotously simple premise, this horror comedy keeps the audience laughing through even the most grotesque acts of violence. This is because director-cowriter Kirill Sokolov doesn't take anything seriously, doubling down on grisly videogame-style action as a woman battles her way through demonic armies in order to escape from a sinister building. It's like a goofy mash-up of John Wick, Kill Bill and The Raid.

Looking for her sister Maria (Myha'la) after a decade in prison, Asia (Beetz) finds work at the Virgil, built in Manhattan as a temple to Satan himself. Immediately, Asia comes into contact with the leaders (including Arquette, Graham and Felton) who sacrifice maids in exchange for immortality. But Asia is a formidable foe, tenaciously killing them over and over while searching for Maria. When cornered, she gets help from the handyman Ray (Joseph). But Maria has gone into this job with her eyes open. The question is whether she'll murder her sister to live forever.

Like most movies in this genre, this one is assembled from a series of action set-pieces, each with a whizzy gimmick that makes it breathtakingly bonkers. Battles take place in corridors, ballrooms, crawl-spaces, lift shafts and the attic temple room, often with Asia battling hordes of black-cloaked, pig-masked marauders brandishing a variety of weaponry. She doesn't emerge unscathed, but we never doubt for a second that she might be stopped. She is simply too tough and energised to stop.

Beetz is superb in the role, revealing Asia's deeper motivation along the way to make her both intriguing and sympathetic. There's a reason why she feels this strongly about Maria, and the connection between Beetz and Myha'la has some terrific layers to it. So if their determination feels perhaps more absurd than realistic, we don't mind much. And Arquette, Graham, Felton and others are having a lot of fun as the antagonists, constantly caught off-guard by Asia's resourcefulness.

Aside from the witty idea of a secret society of obscenely wealthy people preying on the poor and vulnerable, there isn't much subtlety here. This is a guilty pleasure horror romp that will keep genre fans delighted with the extreme gore, which is more cartoonishly over-the-top than realistic. The final showdown is flat-out nuts. And in Beetz, cinema has found an action hero who makes us want to stand up and cheer.

themes, language, violence 25.Mar.26

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