- Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, Zazie Beetz, Tom Felton
- March 27th 2026
- 94
- Kirill Sokolov
Zazie Beetz plays an ex-convict who enters a mysterious high-rise in New York to find her estranged sister.
Zazie Beetz proved her action chops in Bullet Train and Deadpool 2, and now she’s showing them off to their full potential as the lead of They Will Kill You.
In the action horror-comedy, she plays ex-convict Asia Reaves, who goes searching for her younger sister Maria (Myha’la) after being released from prison after 10 years.
She finds out that Maria is working as a maid in a mysterious New York City high-rise called The Virgil, so Asia gets herself a job there too, not realising that the building has a history of unexplained disappearances.
As soon as she enters The Virgil, run by Lily (Patricia Arquette), it becomes clear that this is not your average apartment block.
Asia is rudely interrupted in the middle of the night by masked people with nasty plans for her, and they don’t anticipate that their new target is such a capable fighter.
It feels like Beetz has been waiting for a role like this for years to finally show off what she can do in an action-heavy lead role.
She is badass and her impressive fighting and weapons-handling skills wouldn’t be out of place in a superhero movie.
Asia is forced into fight mode in the middle of the night, so she spends the movie barefoot and in her comfy clothes, punching, kicking, screaming, grunting in pain and becoming increasingly covered in cuts, bruises and blood.
She is supported well by the creepy Arquette, who seems to be doing an OTT version of her Severance character, while Heather Graham and Tom Felton have surprising and amusing roles as two Virgil residents.
They Will Kill You kicks off with a bang and ends with a whimper. It initially feels like a Kill Bill-style violent action movie (the samurai sword and spraying blood help) and Asia’s first fight sequence is spectacular, with awesome choreography, lots of blood, chopped-off limbs and brutal kills and injuries.
But unfortunately, the concept cannot sustain a full-length feature, and it becomes progressively less exciting as Asia moves through the unique building, despite the cool action set pieces, sprinkles of comedy and Beetz’s committed performance.
The flashbacks are a particular issue, as they are unnecessary and ruin the momentum of the propulsive action in the present.
They Will Kill You has a fun concept, is filled with wacky ideas (perhaps too weird at times), good fight sequences and an extraordinary lead performance from Beetz. But it becomes tedious after a while and outstays its welcome.
In cinemas from Friday 27th March.
By Hannah Wales.
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