They Will Kill You: Movie Review

Cast: Zazie Beetz, Myha'la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, and Patricia Arquette
Director: Kirill Sokolov

Mixing the demented with the disposable, They Will Kill You's penchant for predicating laughs and horror is an intriguing one, albeit one that never quite comes together in ways you'd hope.

Beetz plays Asia Reaves who one night turns up at the Virgil hotel, expecting to start a new job as a maid. However, on arriving at the hotel which rose to prominence during the gentrification of New York, she's attacked by a group of hooded individuals, all wearing pig masks.

But the group's underestimated Asia - and her reasons for being there - and soon she fights back in ways they'd never have expected.

They Will Kill You's element of surprise works well to start off with.

With twists and turns, the film's desire to mix Quentin Tarantino violence with Ready Or Not devil-related shenanigans, mixed in with John Wick The Continental's hotel aesthetics promises to deliver much by mixing the genres.

However, what emerges is more a splatter-fest suited to midnight film festival screenings than a broad and inventive movie that'll garner a wider audience. It doesn't help that the film never really creates an image of its own, pretending instead to project homage after homage as it plays out.

Beetz is a punkish, belligerent presence, whose mission and layers gradually reveal, but it takes time to warm to her, and with only 90 minutes to play with, there's little of that on hand. Even flashbacks which are meant to flesh out her character feel more like storyboard-led images that don't give enough depth to the story.

Along with Arquette's dodgy Irish accent, They Will Kill You never quite makes a strong case for its own existence. When it cuts loose, the choreographed violence is impressive enough to behold and occasionally inventive, but with underwritten characters that exist only to spout exposition, it's a diminishing return as the film carries on.