They Will Kill You: Sokolov and His Feast of Chaotic Violence

 

Kiril Sokolov doesn’t hide his influences. He embraces them, flaunts them, and turns them into fuel. They Will Kill You punches you in the face with chaotic violence and a manic intensity that reeks of Park Chan-wook, Quentin Tarantino, and Sam Raimi. If someone threw Oldboy, Kill Bill, a dash of From Dusk Till Dawn, and Rosemary’s Baby into a blender and hit ON, the result would be exactly this. Hope Charles Manson doesn't get mad this time and send his "family" to "leave something witchy".

It’s a bloody revenge film. It’s a confined, claustrophobic action movie. This time the setting isn’t a prison. It’s the Virgil, a New York apartment building that could just as easily be called the Dakota, the Bramford, or the Cecil, names that carry equal parts history and darkness. The name is a direct allusion to The Divine Comedy, and the atmosphere has all the DNA of Roman Polanski. The night endured by Asia Reeves, the character played by Zazie Beetz, is pure Dario Argento: a hardened ex convict forged by years in prison who fights tooth and nail to avoid being sacrificed by a group of immortal Satanists who emerge from behind the walls and move through underground tunnels. They own the place. They always have.

Everything that can go wrong for the protagonist does go wrong. That’s pure Sam Raimi too, and it works because it hurts. You start to feel there’s no possible way out and that all is lost. And right at that moment, when there’s nothing left, Beetz finds the formula to survive and achieve her goal in a finale that feels ripped straight out of Demon Slayer.

Zazie Beetz is a future big screen star, and this film confirms it. Her performance is phenomenal. The blend of frenetic action and black humor she sustains throughout the entire movie is her greatest weapon, and she wields it with a precision few actors achieve when the pace never lets up, clear nods to Uma Thurman as The Bride in Kill Bill or Pam Grier as Coffy.

They Will Kill You works both as an anti-capitalist satire and as an action film with deep roots in classic horror. Two tones that usually clash but here coexist with a surprising naturalness. The most unsettling part of all is the story’s supposed origin. It’s said that Sokolov found a secret passageway inside his own rented apartment, in a building full of elderly residents. That, or maybe he just watched Rosemary’s Baby one Saturday night.