They Will Kill You Movie Review
They Will Kill You is oh so familiar, but still a lot of fun.
Right off, I will say, if you like Ready or Not/Ready or Not 2 type of films, you will enjoy They Will Kill You, as while it’s familiar, it’s still alot of fun.
Plot
A woman answers a cryptic ad for a housekeeping job at a luxurious yet foreboding New York City high-rise. Upon arrival, she discovers residents have vanished without a trace for decades, fuelling whispers of a satanic cult lurking in the shadows.
Good Points
Zazie Beetz
Relentless, well-staged action
Strong sense of momentum throughout
The setting
Bad Points
Thin writing that skips over some deeper ideas
Emotion doesn’t land as hard as it should
You keep up or fall behind.
You won’t be bored while watching They Will Kill You, because this is the kind of film that will grab you early, with little pause to ease you into the mayhem - it just throws you into the first major sequence and from then on, it’s ready-set-go.
And this certainly works in the film’s favour, with a confidence to it that knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t feel the need to justify it.
You’re either in for the ride or you will turn it off quickly, which would be a mistake.
Zazie Beetz is the whole thing.
Everything hinges on Zazie Beetz in the movie, and she delivers, and there’s no way around it, if she doesn’t work, none of this works.
She doesn’t play it like an untouchable action lead either, as she looks tired, and stressed, and I think that makes a difference, because when she scrapes through something, it actually feels like she barely made it.
And yeah - she looks cool doing it, which helps.
The action is where the film really locks in though, and once it starts, it doesn’t stop - no polite breaks, and no long stretches of dialogue - just movement, and movement that is incredibly clear.
You can follow every hit, every shift in space, because it doesn’t hide behind quick cuts or messy editing, as it lets you see what’s happening - there’s a definite influence from Kill Bill in how it stages violence, but it also never felt like it was copying either.
It keeps switching things up.
One thing I definitely appreciated was that the fights don’t all feel the same, as some are tight and scrappy, others lean more stylised and exaggerated, and that variety matters in this kind of movie.
It stops the film from becoming repetitive, which is where a lot of action-heavy films start to lose momentum, but here, it keeps finding ways to stay fresh with a sense of humour running through all of it too.
When it leans into the absurd, it really leans in with no half-measures needed.
The supporting cast holds the edges together.
Patricia Arquette brings this calm, slightly off energy that makes every scene feel a bit uneasy, while Heather Graham adds to that in her own way, and Myha’la gives the film what little emotional grounding it has.
They don’t get as much room as they probably should, but they probably do enough to keep things from feeling one-note.
There’s more here than it lets you see.
This is where the film stumbles a bit, as while the writing isn’t bad - it just feels a bit thin.
There are ideas here that could have gone somewhere interesting - bits of backstory, hints at deeper relationships, fragments of something more - but the film doesn’t stick around long enough to explore them, because it introduces things and then moves on.
Now, a lot of people will say they don’t want anything deeper in this kind of film, which I totally get, and don’t disagree, but my point would be to not bring it to the table in the first place if you aren’t going to go a bit deeper into it.
Same would be said about the attempts at emotion.
The relationship between the sisters is clearly meant to be the anchor, but it doesn’t really land much, and while you understand the stakes, and you get what it’s aiming for, it doesn’t fully connect.
The performances do what they can, especially from Myha’la, but the script doesn’t give it enough space.
The setting
The building where it is set shapes how the film moves - each area feels distinct, with its own purpose in the action, and there’s always that sense that something could be waiting just out of view, which helps to keeps things unpredictable.
I did want a bit more from it - there’s clearly more going on in that space than we see - but what’s there works.
At a certain point though, it’s clear the film just cares more about energy than detail - It wants to keep moving, keep escalating, and keep throwing new situations at you.
And to be fair, it works, if that’s all you need from this kind of film, which for me, it is.
Final Verdict
They Will Kill You is completely committed to the mayhem, and while it skips over things it probably could have done a bit more with, it never loses momentum.
Like Ready or Not, it’s not deep - but it doesn’t need to be.
I agree, there was never a dull moment for the audience!