They Will Kill You is light on plot or logic, but delivers one thousand percent on the gory, over-the-top mayhem that its name promises. It's a messy and ambitious blend of grindhouse, anime, social satire, and old-school Peter Jackson influences that impresses on sheer hubris alone.
Zazie Beetz is divine as the titular hero, Asia, who arrives at an exclusive co-op building for the ultra-wealthy for her new job as a maid. The whole place feels off from the word go, and writer/director Kirill Kosolov spends less than 15 minutes of his viciously lean film in setup. Asia arrives at her new job, meets some deliciously hammy archetypes, settles in, and they try to kill her. At which point she kills them right back.
Yes, there are other twists and turns, some delightful and others rote. At times, They Will Kill You grinds to a halt to satisfy its episodic structure that harkens back to said anime influences. You can almost see the points where mid-season credits would go.
Yet none of this dampens the excitement even one bit. Kosolov is a stupendously visual filmmaker who understands how action speaks louder than words, and he delivers on the promise of riotous mayhem from the start. The first big fight sequence, where Asia takes on a roomful of thugs in nothing but her jammies, is a jolt of lightning to the system. It establishes the visual and structural rules of everything we're about to see and cements Beetz as a star of genre cinema that burns with the power of a thousand suns.
It bears repeating: everyone involved here understands the assignment, but this is Beetz's movie from start to finish. She is a force of nature. A magnetic embodiment of cool, power, and sexiness that singlehandedly carries the film through even the silliest moments. It's the kind of performance people build fandoms around.
Kosolov knows he's found one of the most under-appreciated stars-in-the-making, and he frames Beetz like the Eighth Wonder of the World in every scene. Some of these shots are already in the trailer; others are so outrageous they must be seen to be believed.
At a brisk 90 minutes, They Will Kill You understands how not to overstay its welcome. It resorts to only the barest over-explaining, which it really doesn't need, and for the most part, gets that we're in for the emotional ride, not the logical one. I admire Kosolov's ability to restrain himself from setting up too many rules. That kind of framing only limits the imagination.
It's also fun to see a movie so confident in itself that it never needs to wink at the audience. There is no "well that happened" level of deadpanning. However crazy They Will Kill You gets, and it gets plenty crazy, everyone involved treats it with just the right amount of gravitas.
Shot on a relatively meager budget of 20 million, They Will Kill You looks and plays way bigger than you'd expect. Kosolov makes the most of his single location, and his uncanny ability to surprise with staging remains a delight. If you saw his debut feature, Why Don't You Just Die, you'll recognize his signature moves as he builds them up.
For example, watch how They Will Kill You subverts expectations on familiar tropes of people listening in on bad guys through holes in the wall. Or how a shuffling chase sequence in a cramped shaft goes as Kosolov ramps up his impish sense of humour. Imagine what would happen if Scooby Doo met with Itchy and Scratchy, and you're in the right direction.
They Will Kill You delivers everything you'd expect from a film with this kind of title and poster. It is big and loud and just on the right side of stupid. It is furiously entertaining, dementedly funny, and ends exactly when it should. Whatever misses and hiccups it has are easily forgiven when the rest is this much fun.
