Time: 94 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Graphic violence & offensive language
Cast:
Zazie Beetz as Asia Reaves
Myha’la as Maria Reaves
Paterson Joseph as Ray Woodhouse
Tom Felton as Kevin Sullivan
Heather Graham as Sharon Vanderbilt
Patricia Arquette as Lily Woodhouse
Director: Kirill Sokolov

I was interested in They Will Kill You. I didn’t watch the trailers, but from the images and poster, it looked like an over the top horror movie that looked like I could have fun with. Overall, I enjoyed it, despite some mixed reactions.

From the outside, I thought They Will Kill You would be something like Ready or Not, a horror thriller with comedic elements. However, it instead has its own flavour, it leans more into the comedy, and is a far more over the top and silly flick. The writing is pretty thin and the plot is rather derivative and not that creative. While it might have its own identity from Ready or Not just for the tone, the movie takes from that film and a lot of other better horror movies for its plot. So while everything surrounding the story makes up for it, I still wished that it was just a little bit better, or at least more original than what it was. I think part of what made They Will Kill You so pleasantly surprising for me was the fact that I didn’t watch any trailers and so some of the fun surprises (mainly in the first act) got me on board with the movie pretty quickly. As such, I think it’s best to go into the movie fairly blind. They Will Kill You embraces the insanity and really shines in its most unhinged moments. The violence is bloody, gory and slapstick, and the humour is goofy and silly (even if not all the gags work). I also appreciated how quickly it gets to the craziness, instead of having a slower build up. It clearly knows what kind of movie it is. At 90 minutes in length, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Zazie Beetz made for a great, committed, and charismatic action lead and she really gets to shine here. She’s a really good presence and particularly did well with the stunts. I would love to see her in even more action movies between this and Deadpool 2. The supporting cast are fun with Myha’la, Patricia Arquette (Irish accent aside), Heather Graham, and Tom Felton, and they definitely know what kind of movie they are in

Kirill Sokolov’s direction was very stylistic, with some dynamic camera movements. The action is thoroughly entertaining with great choreography, and it was all captured really well. There’s a lot of over the top blood and gore, with some good practical effects. That said, it is CGI heavy in the third act and some of the effects are a little wonky. I also really didn’t like the needledrops in the movie, mainly during the action sequences.

They Will Kill You is a derivative, but bonkers, enjoyable and wild action horror comedy, with fun choreography, a good cast, and stylistic slapstick gory violence.