They Will Kill You

This weekend, They Will Kill You, a new dark comedy horror film starring Zazie Beetz, will release in theaters. They Will Kill You follows a woman who takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise when she soon realizes that the complex is home to a cult that sacrifices people to their god and must fight off the residents in order to survive the night. If I had a nickel for every time a movie about a girl being trapped in a house and fighting off a bunch of cult members trying to kill her was released between March 20th and 27th, 2026. I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.

I thought this movie was very fun. It combines aspects from multiple of my favorite directors and blends them into one film. It has Tarantino-style action seen mainly in Kill Bill, which is one of my favorite movies. You get limbs getting cut off and blood spraying everywhere, with an almost martial arts and western style feel to it. I would be very surprised if the director didn't cite Kill Bill as an inspiration for this film. The movie also features a lot of crazy imagery and shooting techniques, such as deformed people and fast zoom ins to people's eyes and face which is very reminiscent of Sam Raimi and Evil Dead 2. This makes for some very memorable images and some gnarly sequences. The movie also has a very similar premise to Ready or Not, which I also thought was a very fun movie. Since Ready or Not 2 came out last week, it is easy to compare the two. While the one paragraph summary is the same, the actual style and action is completely different. Ready or Not is an isolated horror thriller, while They Will Kill You is a graphic action horror movie. But out of the two, I much preferred They Will Kill You. They both also consist of a strained sister relationship, which I thought They Will Kill You handled much better than Ready or Not 2, as it feels like a more essential part of the story and has more consistent growth. I also liked how fast-moving this movie was. Less than 10 minutes into the film, we are chopping off limbs and going full-on gore. It wastes no time getting into it.

The main complaint I had was that the movie wasn't long enough. I had so much fun with the action sequence that I was sad when it had to end and just wanted more sequences. I also felt that the budgetary restraints were very easily felt. The CGI wasn't great, which was particularly noticeable when heads and limbs were getting cut off. You can also feel it in the cast size; it is a huge complex with a bunch of members in the cult, but all we see are the same 5 people the whole time. These aren't necessarily bad things, but you just aren't going to see as big a budget as you would with more mainstream films.

Overall, this is a very fun horror movie that pulls styles from a bunch of different directors that I like. It doesn't have the budget of more mainstream films, but it is still a solid B-horror movie.

Score: 8/10 Grade: B+ Recommendation: Check it out