They Will Kill You (2026)

They Will Kill You (2026)

Let them try.

Some films don’t whisper their intentions — they kick the door in, drag the audience along, and never look back. They Will Kill You fits firmly in that lane: loud, bloody, pulpy… and just self-aware enough to revel in the mess it creates. Directed by Kirill Sokolov, this horror-action mash-up drops us into a New York high-rise where the rent is high… and the survival rate is very, very low.

Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) isn’t taking the housekeeping job at The Virgil to start fresh — she’s there on a mission. After serving time for a violent past that split her from her younger sister Maria (Myha’la), Asia tracks her down to the same New York high-rise where Maria now works. The place quickly proves to be anything but a normal luxury address. Sokolov wastes little time revealing the truth: it’s home to a wealthy, tightly controlled satanic cult, one that sustains itself through ritual sacrifice and something far more unnatural. Asia isn’t just infiltrating the complex — she’s walking into a system designed to trap, hunt, and recycle its victims.

At the center of it all is Patricia Arquette’s Lilith Woodhouse, the quietly commanding figure holding the operation together, flanked by residents played by Tom Felton and Heather Graham who lean into the film’s twisted, ritualistic world. What follows is a single, escalating night as Asia fights her way through the structure — not just to escape, but to pull Maria out with her — turning the film into a brutal, supernatural siege where survival isn’t guaranteed, and death isn’t always permanent.

Sokolov is clearly having a blast here — and for the most part, so are we. They Will Kill You wears its influences proudly… maybe too proudly. You can feel shades of Quentin Tarantino in the splatter and swagger, Bong Joon-ho in the class-driven high-rise setup, and flashes of Sam Raimi in the gleefully weird camera work. The issue is that it often feels like a remix of other, better films, rather than something entirely its own. Still — at its best, it’s kind of awesome. What sets it apart is how far it leans into supernatural horror rather than settling for a straight revenge-action climb. The cult mythology, the idea of immortal residents, and the central image of a possessed pig’s head acting as a conduit for something far darker push it past a standard ‘fight your way out’ setup.

And when Sokolov commits to a set-piece, he commits. There’s a grotesquely inventive eyeball sequence — a severed eye rolling, watching, even launching itself through the building like a warped surveillance device. That pig’s head also goes full horror-fantasy — from ritualistic control over the cult to a genuinely unhinged climax where it’s fused into the action in ways that are equal parts absurd and unsettling. The violence steadily escalates — bodies reassembling, limbs still moving, enemies refusing to stay dead — giving the action a mad, almost game-like rhythm where each level pushes things further. It sticks — not just because it’s shocking, but because it’s so specific, so strange, and so committed to its own madness.

The production has a real visual punch. Cinematographer Isaac Bauman turns The Virgil into a grimy, neon-lit maze, with each level feeling like its own little arena — a steady descent that keeps things moving even when the story starts to wobble. And it does wobble. The script, from Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak, mostly just pushes Asia from one moment to the next, without doing much of the heavy lifting in between. Motivations are thin, relationships feel undercooked, and a lot of it holds together rather than fully clicking.

Something more grounded sits underneath it, though. At its core, this is a film about two sisters who’ve taken very different paths after a shared past, now forced back into each other’s lives in the worst possible situation. It gives things a bit of emotional weight, even if it’s not explored as much as it could be. There’s also a clear class angle — the idea of the wealthy literally feeding off those below them — but again, it’s more of a backdrop rather than something Sokolov really digs into.

Zazie Beetz carries the weight of it as Asia Reaves, and it shows — she’s in almost every scene, handling the physical demands and selling the action with a grounded edge that keeps things watchable even when everything around her goes off the rails. Myha’la gets more to play with than it first seems as Maria, starting off quieter before revealing a more complicated position within the building, which adds tension to their dynamic. Paterson Joseph appears as Ray Woodhouse, Lilith’s husband and a key part of The Virgil’s inner workings, initially helping maintain the system before his loyalties begin to shift. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time, but brings a steady, authoritative presence that helps sell the world. Tom Felton leans into a more playful, slightly unhinged energy, while Heather Graham matches that tone, embracing the film’s gnarly side. Patricia Arquette is fun as Lilith, the one pulling the strings — calm, controlling, and just theatrical enough for this kind of role, even if the performance occasionally pushes a little too far. And, oh — Angus Sampson pops up as Asia’s investigator/lawyer, a brief but welcome presence.

They Will Kill You isn’t trying to reinvent anything, but it leans hard into its identity — weird, gory, and just off-center enough to stand out. It doesn’t chase precision. And that shows at times. But there’s a confidence in how far it pushes its ideas and set-pieces. The supernatural angle, the imagery, and the willingness to get a little strange give it more personality than most others in this space. It doesn’t always kill… but it definitely leaves a mark.

3.5 / 5 – Great

Reviewed by Dan Cachia (Mr. Movie)

They Will Kill You is distributed by Warner Bros. Australia