They Will Kill You opens with Asia (Zazie Beetz) and Maria Reaves (Myha’la Herrold) fleeing from their abusive father. Cornered in a supermarket, the two get separated. Asia is arrested and Maria is left to live with their father.
Ten years later, Asia arrives at The Virgil, an exclusive high-rise in New York City, as a newly hired maid. She is welcomed by the building’s manager, Lilith Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette), who walks her through her duties, the building’s history, and its wealthy residents, including Kevin Sullivan (Tom Felton) and Sharon Vanderbilt (Heather Graham). The tour ends with Lilith showing her to her quarters. But just as Asia is about to sleep, a group of masked intruders breaks into her room.
It does not take long for Asia to realize that the residents of The Virgil are part of a satanic cult. And the reason they need a new maid is because she’s their next offering to Satan in exchange for immortality.
However, Asia has a surprise of her own. What the residents do not know is that she came prepared. She is a skilled fighter, and her luggage is packed not with clothes, but with weapons.
Ever since her release from prison, she has had her eye on The Virgil after an informant (Angus Sampson) tipped her off that Maria was there. Now that the cult proactively has come for her, fighting back is the only option she has.
It is kind of a great coincidence that both Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and They Will Kill You share the same release date and almost the same premise. Both films opened in Philippine cinemas on March 25, both are about satanic cults out to kill one woman as some sort of sacrifice, and both center on sisters.
What sets They Will Kill You apart is that it leans more into hyper-stylized, video game-like action. Without an established mythology or source material, it carves out an identity for itself through style alone. And action-wise, it is engaging despite being confined to the small halls and rooms of a single building. The execution is creative. Some of the fight scenes even remind me of Oldboy.
The story is where it does not excel. Not that it is terrible, it just feels thin, finite, and a little too safe. The flashback structure does not help either. The problem with it is timing. Cutting away to a memory in the middle of a film that is supposed to be propulsive and action-driven kills the momentum. Because of that, the film never quite reaches the level of emotional investment the audience needs to genuinely care about and connect with the protagonist.
The villains also feel underutilized. There are not a lot of fun or creative ways the film uses their abilities. There is one moment that genuinely amused me though: a woman’s head getting exploded by a shotgun, but that is about it. Beyond that, they mostly just chase and do convenient things that serve the plot.
They Will Kill You is interesting enough. The trailer alone would convince me to watch it in cinemas. But there is still a lot more this film could have been.
2.5/5