Film Review: They Will Kill You 

They Will Kill You
Director: Kirill Sokolov
New Line Cinema, Nocturnal
In Theaters: 03.27.2026

It’s not unusual for two movies with similar plotlines to come to theaters, whether it’s Deep Impact and Armageddon in 1998, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down in 2013 or Imaginary and IF in 2024. If you’ve seen Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, and thought that a violent action horror comedy about two estranged sisters fighting off wealthy, bloodthirsty Satan-worshippers together and trying to break a curse was bound to come out as something unique, it did… for a week. And now we have They Will Kill You. 

Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz, Deadpool 2, The Harder They Fall) is sent to prison after shooting her abusive father while attempting to escape his grasp along with her younger sister, Maria (Myha’la, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Leave The World Behind). Nine years later, Asia is released and takes a live-in housekeeping job in an upscale New York high-rise. When she arrives at the building, Asia is greeted by Lilith Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette, True Romance, Severance) and shown to her room. That night, Asia is attacked by assassins in hoods and cloaks, and she discovers the building’s residents are part of a secretive cult tied to years of unexplained disappearances. She also discovers that Maria is somewhere in the hotel. Trapped overnight inside the labyrinthine tower, Asia becomes the intended sacrifice in a ritual meant to preserve the group’s power. Refusing to die, she turns the building into a battleground, using resourcefulness and brutal force to fight through floors of deadly followers. As secrets begin to surface, survival becomes both a physical and emotional reckoning. 

They Will Kill You is a fast-moving and entertaining film that’s also a bit too convoluted for its own good. The bigger problem lies in the uneasy tonal balance: when it’s a gonzo horror comedy filled with elaborate fight choreography and deliberately cheesy gore that is intentionally made to look low budget and humorous, bringing to mind both Evil Dead and The Addams Family, it plays quite well. But in the moments when it becomes a disturbingly bleak drama about the physical and psychological scars of domestic abuse against young women, the serious subject matter clashes with the zany nature of the macabre comedy. That’s a shame because when the movie is working, it’s a visually inventive if overly frenetic diversion that could make for a decent tradition as a Halloween movie. But it simply can’t decide what kind of darkness it wants to embrace, and that’s likely to keep me from watching it again.

Beetz throws herself into the role of the tough-as-nails action heroine with a fierce commitment and a sense of fun, and it’s so good to see her in a star vehicle that there are moments when she comes close to holding the movie together, and Myha’la makes a memorable sidekick. Arquette is also in top form as the Irish matron who commands the cultists, though Tom Felton (Harry Potter) and Heather Graham (Boogie Nights), who play cult members Kevin and Sharon, respectively, are ill-served by paper-thin characters that overstay their welcome. Paterson Joseph (Wonka) is superb as Ray, Lilith’s husband and one of the most interesting characters in the film.

They Will Kill You would certainly have benefited from not having to be directly compared to Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, but that’s impossible at this point. The silly nature of the blood and guts made it at times easier to take for me, but the heavier elements left an aftertaste that I simply couldn’t swallow. Is it possible to enjoy both films? Certainly, but it’s just as easy to not particularly love either one. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews from Patrick Gibbs
Film Review: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
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