Fun is an essential emotion in cinema. Few seem to be having it anymore, and those capable of cultivating it don’t get nearly as much credit as their buttoned-up counterparts. That’s a shame: the endorphin rush that comes from sitting in a dark theater, hooting and hollering with a group of like-minded strangers, is becoming increasingly underestimated. But it’s something we need more now than ever. It stands in defiance of cringe or cramp, sometimes even trumping a film’s predictability.
That’s especially true for They Will Kill You, director Kirill Sokolov’s English-language debut. In so many ways it’s more graphic novel than movie: Sokolov seems determined to make both the coolest and craziest thriller of the decade, and he mostly succeeds. Zazie Beetz’s brazen heroine crashes through cinematic splash pages that invoke the collective spirit of Lady Snowblood, Foxy Brown, and Dawn of the Dead. The Russian director also projects his influences proudly and emphatically on each frame, and they don’t end with the grindhouse hits that inspired the likes of Tarantino — or the work of Tarantino himself. They Will Kill You also owes plenty to the work of Sam Raimi, whose oddball marriage between slapstick and gore inspires so much of what makes this film work. Then there’s its girl-fights-Satanic-cult premise, which ties it directly to 2019’s Ready or Not. Yes, this will undoubtedly remind you of other (some might say better) films. But it also understands the perverse thrill of watching everything that can go wrong burst so fantastically into flames.
