‘They Will Kill You’ REVIEW: Hack and Slash
‘They Will Kill You’ REVIEW: Hack and Slash
This seems like a very normal job… | Still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
As I’m sure many people have noticed priorhand, it’s quite a humorous, coincidental occurrence that Kirill Sokolov’s latest gorefest with a very threatening title was released in the Philippines the same day as fellow bloodbath actioner Ready or Not: Here I Come while also sharing some of its themes, but that surface-level comparison alone does not exactly do this film justice on its own merits. Armed with confidence and a sense of extreme escalation, They Will Kill You is one hell of a pastiche that, in its stumbles, still has the guts to entertain.
The core premise is simple and outlined in its opening act, both in tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt manner: a young woman (Zazie Beetz) enters her first day as a maid in upstart New York, within the tall, sprawling halls of the Vigil hotel. While its inhabitants are quite strange in their first interactions with her, the woman herself holds some secret ulterior motive, one that ultimately detonates in the employees’ faces once they, and the rest of the hotel crew, fully unveil theirs. The Vigil is ultimately powered by a satanic cult looking for a sacrifice, and the woman, named Asia Reaves, is on a rescue mission whose redemption might be found in their deaths. Both of their goals will be as easy as it seems as both sides embark on a rambunctious clash that may decide the fate of the cursed high-rise and its inhabitants.
Upon first witness to its flash and form, They Will Kill You definitely makes clear of its influences: the 2010s-era horror actioner sheen (think Wingard’s You’re Next or Kitamura’s No One Lives), the flips on the stylings of other well-known genre sickos like Sam Raimi and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill-era Tarantino), and the infusion of blood from the cult horror and blaxploitation sub-genres.
If one is quite bothered by what can be interpreted as mere cribbing, it would be quite understandable, as Sokolov clearly leans on the mixture coalesced by these influences as substance, for the script — even in its meagre attempts at social commentary on the exploitation of the least fortunate to be sacrificed for the eternal longevity of the rich and caucasian — fails to fully explore its thematics beyond the bare minimum competency to kick the plot off in motion.
A more polished version of this could’ve balanced both an intriguing richness amongst the absurdity, but at the very least, it doesn’t fully let its more direct, id-fueled pleasures down.
Sharon (Heather Graham) peering into a holed mattress | Still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
If anything, the film prides itself in its physical momentum, hitting you straight in the face with high impact fight choreography (courtesy of Russ McCaroll, who also worked on fellow ilk Boy Kills World), needledrops, imaginative transitory set pieces, recontextualizing chapter breaks to set the table for the next ridiculous fight or twist, and more than a couple of physical or situational gags. As the stakes gradually shift and distort into something more diverged from any sort of shaky grounded reality that its world already stands on (including an outrageous wrinkle that gets built upon as the movie progresses), it’s clear that Sokolov is fully embracing a whole bucket of worth extent of cartoon carnage as an outlet for crowd-pleasing catharsis.
At its best, it functions and paces itself as an extremely high-octane “Character Action” game (something in the vein of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry) where any pretense of slow cinematic weight gets dropped in favor of the sheer sensory satisfaction of large swarms of enemies getting chopped down combo-style by an engaging protagonist. Beetz truly owns her role as a heroine, imbuing scrappy confidence and even some flawed, impulsive humanity to Asia’s character as she bulldozes her way through the Vigil, and the film would truly not work as well on its own wavelength otherwise.
Sokolov also provides additional pizzazz through some truly wacky visual choices beyond the brawls and pratfalls. Sure, you’ve got the ol’ reliable zooms and western standoff framing (within the prior-mentioned school of Raimi and Tarantino), but you also have deranged camera movement (one scene involving it moving in see-saw direction that had me internally howling) and very hyperbolic, fun-house imagery of traversing the bourgeois hellhole. In the middle of all the madness, though, it really does help that coverage of the action remains clean and focused to add impact to those squishes and squibs.
Asia (Zazie Beetz) wielding a sword | Still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The bedlam might seem a bit relentless to the point of numbing, but there are enough turns and emotional stakes set up, especially with Asia’s sister Maria (Myha'la) providing a nice emotional core that becomes increasingly pivotal. Furthermore, everything might seem a bit too digital, but it, at least in my approximation, does fit the more “game-y” vibe that the film was going for.
It’s safe to say that the warning is valid: I have indeed been killed by They Will Kill You, based on its over-the-top, PS2-era-esque take of genre tradition that just keeps on rollicking until the end of its tight-90-minute runtime, and by then it has jumped numerous sharks than one would initially expect. A sugary sweet rush of bloody action with minimal accompanying nutrients to those carbohydrates, anyone looking for meaningful revelations in narrative or style would find themselves disappointingly checking out. For those looking for thumping, hyperbolic flair that worships and brings the past to an ever-exhilarating present, please do enjoy your stay.
‘They Will Kill You’ is now showing in Philippine cinemas through Warner Bros. Philippines.
