In partnership with Warner Bros. UK
Welcome to The Virgil. Built in 1923, from the outside, it’s an imposing New York high-rise – one of the most exclusive buildings in Manhattan. But on the inside? Now that’s another story. This is what ex-convict Asia Reaves discovers when she applies for a job there as a housekeeper in brand new horror-comedy-actioner They Will Kill You.
Unaware that this all-but-abandoned building has played host to a number of disappearances over the years, Asia is soon fighting for her life, when she discovers that the building is a temple to Satan. Every month, members of a cult make a human sacrifice – and she’s next. As a gang of Satan worshippers come swinging for her, Asia has to fight her way out of The Virgil, an apartment complex designed to be a death trap. With an endless warren of crawlspaces, cupboards and corridors spookier than The Shining, it’s like the ultimate sacrificial playground. Can she last one night? Or will she be the next successful offering?
An intoxicating mix of black humour and high-octane action, with epic kills and brazen action, They Will Kill You is about to unleash hell. Here’s the inside track on this year’s most blistering, big-screen extravaganza.
Zazie Beetz is a new kind of action heroine
This is the year of Zazie Beetz, as audiences get the chance to see her tear up the screen in They Will Kill You. The Emmy-nominated star of Atlanta, Joker and Deadpool 2 goes toe-to-toe with dozens of opponents, in a survive-at-all-costs inferno that will leave you gasping for air. With her character hardened after a spell in prison, where she learned how to fight her way out of trouble in the yard, Beetz gets to showcase her incredible martial arts skills. And when she can’t kick or punch, she more than proves herself adept with sawn-off shotguns, fiery axes, and any other blunt instrument that comes to hand. Is it bloody? You bet.
“I definitely became very intimate with the blood that was provided and sprayed and poured onto me,” Beetz recently said in a Reddit AMA, suggesting she spent 80 per cent of the movie covered in the red stuff. In a story that upfronts female empowerment and tenacity, she is the perfect embodiment of the lone wolf warrior.
The cast is to die for
Lining up alongside Zazie Beetz in They Will Kill You is a very cool supporting cast. The fearless females include Industry’s Myha’la, Austin Powers’ Heather Graham and Boyhood Academy Award-winner Patricia Arquette, as the head of the co-op who first shows Asia around. Among their male counterparts are British stars Tom Felton, formerly Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, as flashy cult member Kevin, and Paterson Joseph – aka Alan Johnson from Peep Show – who first warns Asia that she has stepped into her own personal nightmare. With The Virgil also staffed by an army of maids – whose sole task, it seems, is to hand out mallets and golf clubs to bring down Asia – it’s not what you might call a fair fight. But will any of them be a match for her? Or are they just lambs for the slaughter? Let them try.
Expect a top-class horror pedigree
Behind They Will Kill You are exactly the people you might want to deliver some adrenaline-driven popcorn thrills. Among the producers are Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the sibling team behind the stunning two-part adaptation of Stephen King classic It and the recent prequel series It: Welcome To Derry. As Andy recently explained, unpacking their influences on this project, the satirical 1967 camp horror The Fearless Vampire Killers “was one that really imprinted us”. Joining them is writer-director Kirill Sokolov, who is already famed for his rip-roaring adventures like revenge tale Why Don’t You Just Die! (2018) and No Looking Back (2021). Sokolov, who co-wrote the script with Alex Litvak, brings his ass-kicking action chops and tremendous craftsmanship to the blood-covered table to power this wickedly fun escape-room adventure. You won’t know what hit you.
The house always wins
Filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the true stars of They Will Kill You is The Virgil, the apartment complex created by production designer Jeremy Reed. Previously a designer on the classic psychological thriller Hard Candy, Reed created an intricate setting filled with stylish surprises. From its ominous occult-like symbol at the apex of the building to the ‘V’-branded buzzer on the front door and its wood-panelled interiors decorated with priceless art, this luxury maze-like residence is a character in its own right. As Sokolov recently stated on Reddit, “You’ll see the mythology within the building, and why everything has the colours, patterns it has.” Ready for action, it’s the ideal battleground to play out this year’s most bonkers death-defying smackdown.
‘They Will Kill You’ opens in UK cinemas on March 27