They Will Kill You Review

 

Zazie Beetz plays Asia Reaves, an ex-convict who is searching for her younger sister, which leads her to a mysterious New York apartment building filled with satanic residents that she must fight not only to save her sister but also to survive.

I was quite impressed with the action throughout the film; the fight was very frenetic and well choreographed, not to mention the filmmakers get very creative with all the different camera movements and styles. Like certain scenes are perfectly symmetrical and have this quirky aesthetic that it feels straight out of a Wes Anderson movie, but you’ll have masked bad guys getting chopped up, so it feels like The Grand Budapest Hotel meets The Raid, which doesn’t sound like it should work as well as it does, but the filmmakers managed to pull it off. So good for them.

Zazie Beetz does a very good job; her character is pretty straightforward and focused on her mission, but there are a few scenes that she’s able to give her a more comedic or dramatic performance. Not to mention she’s very impressive with all the action scenes; I could tell The Bride from Kill Bill was a big influence on this character.

There was a very interesting chase scene in some tunnels that was pretty creative, and the way it was shot almost felt like stop motion, like it felt like I was watching Fantastic Mr. Fox for a few seconds, but the way they were moving

Tom Felton and Heather Graham play satanic henchmen, and they both do a good job and get some good comic moments, although I wish their characters were a little more fleshed out and had more to do, but for what they were given, both actors are enjoyable. Again, props to them for all the fight choreography.

I really enjoyed this one fight scene in a ballroom that involved fire; the weight was shot, and the choreography mixed with cinematography was very impressive and cool, definitely a standout scene for me. 

Patricia Arquette plays the manager of the hotel and has quite an impressive Irish accent; she’s very good at seeming intimidating, but they also give her character an interesting moral complexity that I do wish had been explored a little bit more, but what we got was interesting at fleshing her character out.

This movie is much gorier than I was expecting, like it’s nothing too brutal or skeezy, but they were definitely scenes that I was not expecting to go as hard as they did and leave off practical effects, especially with one little creature that was pretty impressive and a little bit cute in one instance.

Myha'la plays the sister, and I found her relationship with her sister interesting. Some parts were a little cliché and heavy on drama, but some of the twists and turns with her character were actually pretty interesting and added to the tension of the story of how these two girls were going to get out of all this.

I do think the world of this hotel has been streamlined a little better; it’s not bad, but there were a lot of different ideas that were thrown at you when explaining it at once, and there are one or two times. I felt like I should’ve had a note so I could double-check to make sure I knew what was going on, but it’s not overly complicated enough that you don’t get it, but certain things will take you a second to connect certain dots together.

I was pleasantly surprised with Paterson Joseph's character of Ray (who is Patricia Arquette‘s husband in the movie); his character had some interesting moral complexity to him and turned out to be the heart of the film.

This movie is more heavy on action than it is plot or character moments, so be aware of that going in, but like I’ve said, the action is both very well executed and creative, not to mention ratchets up perfectly so audiences will still be pretty engrossed.

I did not expect the climax to go the way it did. I can see some people thinking it is a little over the top, but I thought it was pretty fun and kind of original.

I do find it a little odd that they released this movie one week after Ready or Not 2, another movie involving sisters with a strained relationship on the run from Satanists, like they were certain points. I’m like, "Were they writing these scripts next to each other at the same time, and did the writers copy off one another lol?" Like, each film has enough unique qualities to differentiate them from each other, but there were definitely certain parts. I’m like, “I just saw this last week"; definitely an odd coincidence.

They Will Kill You may not be the most original movie; you can see a ton of influences from Wes Anderson, The Raid, Kill Bill, Ready or Not, and a little Rosemary's Baby, but the filmmakers were able to take all these elements and blend them in a way that you get a fun, thrilling action story with likable characters and creative and unique story elements. I give the film three and a half stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.