Sometimes some people just really need an ass kicking, and whether it is from John Wick or The Bride from Kill Bill you know when they walk into a room there is only one person walking back out. Now we might have a new avenger with Zazie Beats walking into a hotel full of occultists in the new film They Will Kill You.
Up front the film premise is pretty simple with Domino and her sister on the run from an abusive home and being seperated with one going back to the abuser and one going to jail. That is until 10 years later when our re/avenger finds herself walking into a exclusive hotel in New York walking into the life of a house maid as the last lead on her missing sibling. That is until hooded figures with knives slip into her room in the middle of the night like a installment of the Scream franchise but that is not how things go down.
While we don’t want to give any spoilers away (that haven’t been from the trailers) what follows is an action slasher that sits somewhere between From Dusk til Dawn and 60s/70s Samurai or Pulp films that definitely left an impression on Tarantino. Think a little bit like if John McClane knew Nakatomi Tower was full of terrorists and decided to walk through the front doors anyway… also his last name is secretly Wick… and is Zazie Beats.
While this is bloody and action filled this does border on Black Comedy I’m places with how absurd the action can get despite the fire hoses of blood as limbs and heads start to fall. With action being the currency that pushes the film forward across it’s short hour and a half run time and multiple hotel floors it does get a little weird as much as it does bloody. The best we can explain is if the Kill Bill sword fight scene took place in the bar from Dusk til Dawn.
Visually the film knows what it is and aims to embrace it with horizontal shots for long hallway fights, 360 room brawls and the occasional side cutaway while traversing through the walls of the hotel. There is not just one set piece here but multiple strung together to give you a film that is light on the thinking and heavy on the violence.
So, should you go see it? If Dusk til Dawn or even Big Trouble in Little China is one of your favourite films then yes this definitely shares some DNA and not just from a feet lover point of view. While opening to be a slasher horror this definitely has more in common with any pre-80s film that involved sword fights and geisters of blood to an almost comic level. There is a pretty good chance this is going to end up being someone’s favourite cult film and not just because it has a cult in it.
They Will Kill You is in cinemas across Australia from March 26
