Well-heeled Satanists are big right now. A week after Samara Weaving squared off against the demonic upper crust in Ready or Not: Here I Come, Zazie Beetz is facing her own squadron of bedevilled adversaries in the well-named actioner They Will Kill You.
Does They Will Kill You Live Up to Modern Horror Standards?
In fact, They Will Kill You is remarkably similar to Ready or Not: Here I Come. Both are extravagantly gory, action-first stories about estranged (and troubled) sisters forced to engage in a vicious battle of survival with a wealthy, Satanic cabal lurking within an ornate stone building.
Seriously — that’s the plot of both movies. You’d think one or the other would’ve at least delayed release for a few months.
The main way They Will Kill You is different from last week’s picture is in its tone; director Kirill Sokolov has a frenetic, overly stylized approach to filmmaking. (It’s reductive to say it’s an imitation of Quentin Tarantino … but it’s an imitation of Quentin Tarantino, from head to toe. Emphasis on the latter.) There are memorable sequences in They Will Kill You, but they often seem to be assembled by accident. Throughout the relatively short feature, Sokolov throws a hodgepodge of musical styles, camera tricks, sound effects and visual flourishes at the viewer. Occasionally, some of these punches land — frequently, they don’t.
Zazie Beetz Can’t Make Sense of It, But She Can Punch Through It
It’s a relief, then, that the highly charismatic and fully determined Zazie Beetz is on hand to lasso the mayhem. While They Will Kill You is ultimately a bad movie, no one told Beetz that; she approaches every scene with fury and flair.
Less notable are the roster of character actors who they drag in to oppose Beetz. Patricia Arquette appears to be here solely for the paycheck (and it can’t have been all that great of a paycheck), seemingly trying on different accents throughout the film to amuse herself. Heather Graham occasionally puts a modicum of effort in but does not have much to work with. Tom Felton is clearly just happy to be employed.
They Will Kill You is busy, but it’s remarkably light on substance. The plot barely moves, the effects are awkward and the logical gaps are bountiful. By the time the talking pig head starts rattling off the intricacies of demonic contract law — not an exaggeration — you’ll have checked out. Our heroine may be able to fend off an army of immortal foes, but even she doesn’t have the strength to defeat a script this weak.
Documentaries in the Cinema, Narrative Features at Home
If you prefer your potential world-enders a bit more (sadly) plausible than a high-rise full of Satanists, there’s a documentary for you. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist follows Oscar-winning filmmaker Daniel Roher as he grills experts and futurists for hope amid the dire noise surrounding Artificial Intelligence. Everything Everywhere All at Once directors Daniel Kwan and Jonathan Wang serve as producers.
A thorough and lively music doc is also making its way to cinemas at the moment. Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It explores the musical triumphs and personal struggles of its subject, who reached the heights of stardom in the 1960s and ’70s before fighting demons (but, always, still making music) throughout the rest of the century. Collaborators including Ringo Starr and Mick Jagger testify about Preston’s unmatched musicianship.
A pair of action flicks hit streaming this week. On Prime, Pretty Lethal follows a ballet troupe forced into combat; Uma Thurman, Maddie Ziegler, Avantika Vandanapu and Millicent Simmonds star. On Hulu, meanwhile, gangsters get stuck with a time machine in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, featuring Vince Vaughn, James Marsden and Keith David.
Story by Sean Collier
Photos by Graham Bartholomew/Warner Bros. Pictures
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