“10 years ago I made the biggest mistake of my life. I should have protected my sister, but I panicked and ran. It was the last time I saw her. That F**’er survived. Maria got put back in his custody . I got caught, eventually. Now it’s time to make things right.”
Writer/director Krill Sokolov got his start in his native Russia with a film called Why Don’t YouJjust Die. I haven’t seen any of his Russian films, but from what I can tell, They Will Kill You doesn’t appear to far astray from his work there. They Will Kill You is his first American feature film, and it honestly shows some originality and has the power to hold your attention for the perfectly timed 94 minute horror film. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has now released the bloody film on UHD Blu-ray giving us the advantage of seeing the film in 4K.
10 years ago Asia Reeves (Beetz) tried to escape with her little sister Maria (Myha’la) from their abusive father. He corners them at a convenience mart, and she shoots him. Unfortunately, she didn’t kill him, but when she heard sirens approaching, she left Maria behind and she ran. She got caught and served 10 years in prison for attempted murder. She’s out now, and she’s out for revenge. The last she heard about Maria is that she went to work for an elite apartment building in the city called The Virgil. She had not been seen since. So she steals the identity of another girl about to report there for work and gets inside the crazy building. The place screams Sata from the bizarre motifs on the door to the atmosphere inside. The place even has a young boy named Damien. I don’t know about you, but that stuff would be my cue to get the hell out and get to a priest quickly. The bars close menacingly behind her, and she going to through with her plan. That night she’s attacked by a group of robed Tellerites. For you non-Star Trek fans out there, these are rather pig-faced aliens. Of course, they’re just the welcoming committee. You see, The Virgil, run by Lily Woodhouse, played by a strange-accented Patricia Arquette, is having a special day tomorrow. And Asia is the guest of honor.
Here’s the fast scoop. The residents of The Virgil are immortal. They can’t be killed, which becomes an annoying problem for Asia, who can’t seem to get them to stay dead. Cut off a head and it grows back, but in an amusingly slow burn that recalls Tony Shalhoub’s alien in the original Men In Black. Asia’s a great fighter. She has mad martial arts skills and is pretty handy with a sword, but that’s not much help when the dead bad guys keep coming back. Of course, everything has a pric,e and this immortality comes with a stiff one. Every once in a while they have to make a human sacrifice to keep their name on this list. Where the list happens to be will be a little clever surprise. So most of the film has Asia moving through the bowels of the building trying to find her sister and escape. What happens with sis is a plot device I won’t reveal here. But the general schtick of the film are brutal kills followed by resurrections. She befriends one of them who is tired of the cost and helps her escape. Ray, played by Patterson Joseph, is actually the most interesting character in the film and is criminally underused. Joseph delivers a compelling performance, all the while surrounded by either silliness or madness. Take your pick.
The film has so many elements to make this a truly atmospheric horror film, but they play too much against the atmosphere and veer too much into spoof territory. The idea is pretty clever, but the film never decides if it’s going for a laugh or a scare. There have been many movies that could pull that off, but here this thing needed to pick a lane and remain firmly on course there. The pig’s head at the climax of the film looks pretty good and was one of the more impressive accomplishments of the film.
There are a few strong members of the supporting cast, but they just never appear to settle into the thing. Patricia Arquette appears to be playing it completely for laughs with a solid deadpan delivery and an oh-not-good accent. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but it’s bad, and perhaps the actress figured she might as well go all out in the comedy routine. Heather Graham is often great in roles like this, but there isn’t any energy to her performance here at all, and I believe it’s because she really didn’t know what kind of a movie she was in any more than we, the audience, know.
The gore is played pretty well with some nice practical f/x, but then they purposely make it look like a comic book frame. Are they trying to be Creepshow? Are they trying to be Die Hard? Are they trying to be Kill Bill? Are they trying to be Taken? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes. And that’s not quite a good thing.
Video
They Will Kill You is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.20:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 55 mbps. The ultra high definition gets most of its bump from the fact that it was shot in native 4K and used a 4K intermediate, so there’s not going to be the feeling of an upconvert here, and that was a wise choice by those involved. The film is mostly dark, and shadow definition is inconsistent. The Dolby Vision is great for the contrast, and that helps, because the shoot utilized mostly set lighting for the shots. But that means that even with good Dolby Vision/HDR help there are still some muddy moments here. Detail remains high except when too much darkness takes a lot of that away from us. The colors are warm with a lot of earth tones in the production design and things like costumes. There really aren’t a lot of colorful bursts here, and that also would have assisted with the atmosphere if they had chosen a lane.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. You won’t find any aggressive surrounds here even in the action and/or bloody encounters. Again, that can really help with that claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped in this house. There is some ear candy from time to time, but it’s subtle, which in itself can be a very good thing. The score is relatively laid back, and the dialog punches through just fine. The film did deliver some rather unexpected moments where the subs really punched through and we get this satisfying bottom end to it all.
Special Features
Director’s Log – The Making Of They Will Kill You: (7:35) This one focuses on the director, which I kind of liked because I was really not familiar with any of his earlier work. You get a good idea of what he was going for here … at least as good an idea as he himself might have had. There’s some nice behind-the-scenes footage to go with this rather brief look behind the camera.
Developing The Virgil: (7:49) The building is really a huge character in the movie. We get a look art some nice detail work from the production design crew. There are some truly nice set pieces to the film.
Asia Reeves Attacks: (7:11) This is a nice profile on the actress and her action scenes, which are pretty much non-stop in the film. Nice to see a few candid moments behind the scenes here.
Final Thoughts:
There was a lot of potential and promise here. The misfires I’m willing to chalk up to a director who is just learning how to make films in America. He does some absolutely sweet stuff here, and I think once he finds his legs the pacing and story will become tighter. I’ll keep an eye on him and anticipate what a more experienced filmmaker can do. If he can continue to grow, this uneven film shouldn’t hurt a promising career. “Just a flesh wound.”
