Writer/director Kirill Sokolov made the leap from shorts to features with the 2018 darkly comic actioner Why Don’t You Just Die! in which an idiot is convinced by his girlfriend to kill her police detective father. A spin on several familiar narrative tales, it’s 94-minutes of almost constant chaotic mayhem. Now, in his Hollywood feature debut which is inspired by real-life experience, Sokolov marries that same practical-design insanity and penchant for violence to form the grindhouse-like They Will Kill You, coming available on home video. Between its razor thin narrative and interest in keeping things electric, They Will Kill You barely permits a moment to breathe in a tale whose familiarity allows for enough predictability to think you know what’s going to happen and enough false presumptions to enjoy the ride.
Zazie Beetz as Asia in New Line Cinema/Nocturna’s THEY WILL KILL YOU, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Graham Bartholomew. © 2026 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Upon release from a 10-year prison sentence, Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) heads to an upscale New York City apartment building, the Virgil, looking for a fresh start. Welcomed as the newest member of the custodial staff, Asia is warmly greeted by caretaker Lily Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette) and shown to her room where she can get clean, settle in, and get some rest. However, soon after the lights are out, Asia realizes that the posh residents of the Virgil are not the frail, gentile sort they appear to be but are, in fact, quite dangerous. Amusingly, at the same time she comes to learn this about them, they do the same about her.
This home release review is based on a 4K UHD retail copy provided by Warner Bros. Pictures Home Entertainment. Though this is a home review and, therefore, more likely to include spoilers, there’s something so fun about the discovery of They Will Kill You that the following exploration will do its best to keep all spoilers out like a traditional, initial release review.
Written by Sokolov and Alex Litvak (Predators; Secret Society of Second-Born Royals); produced by Dan Kagan (Longlegs; Boy Kills World), Andy Muschietti (IT; The Flash), and Barbara Muschietti (IT; The Flash); They Will Kill You is an amalgamation of Blaxploitation, chopsocky, and grindhouse horror rolled into one. Each piece interlocks, building a unique story that allows for a specific narrative effect that feels familiar within unfamiliar terrain while, at the same time, strengthening itself by only taking the parts of each subgenre that bolster Asia as a lead rather than have her succumb to the parts of these subgenres that often degrade Black characters, let alone Black women. This culminates in a characterization by Beetz (Deadpool 2; Bullet Train; The Harder They Fall) of a figure who draws strength from wanting to do right by her past mistakes; in this case, taking the form of failing to protect her younger sister, Maria (Orefile Moloi), at a time when it was needed most. So, when the truth of The Virgil comes out and Asia finds herself a lone sheep in a house of wolves, not only does Beetz convincingly display the necessary rage and determination to make for a believable protagonist under the circumstances, but is able to do so in the form of a character that’s not a sheep but a coyote in search of its pack. This creates within the narrative a surprising sense of tension because Asia is on her back foot due to the size of the opposition, yet she never feels entirely discounted through the strength of her seemingly indomitable will. So much of this is due to Beetz’s conviction and physical prowess, demonstrated by Beetz’s ability to do many of the stunts herself, as well as Sokolov’s reliance on in-camera techniques, all of which create an aura around Asia that even Lily acknowledges, despite the seeming impossibility of survival. It’s this approach that allows Sokolov to incorporate nods that imply Asia is a Black samurai akin to Yasuke (reportedly the first Black samurai in history) or Afro Samurai with something as small as the lighter Asia carries and the insistence to prominently display it in a specific scene that ties into Asia gathering her focus. This is but one instance in which Isaac Bauman’s (Faces of Death; Bloodline) cinematography breaks the rules of expectation, jumping between Asia on her bed starring at an air vent, clicking the lighter open and closed, the camera moving between the three points, each click open of the lighter and each click close revealing a design of someone have their head cleaved from their shoulders, blood spraying everywhere, like in Throne of Blood (1957). Before the proverbial dynamite goes off, Sokolov has created a tone that conveys Asia is not avoidant of violence, is comfortable with the notion of blood spray, and seems hyperaware of her surroundings — all things told to us through Beetz’s performance, Bauman’s cinematography, and one simple prop.
Where the film may struggle to hold audiences is in the obviousness of the situation as it relates to audiences and cinema. The film is one that’s been seen many times and is likely to draw comparisons to narratively similar modern horror comedy series Ready or Not (its sequel also premiered at SXSW 2026 alongside They Will Kill You). The similarity primarily lies in the lead figure, here represented by Asia, as trying to avoid getting captured and killed by the residents of The Virgil, though there are others. The two series diverge quite a bit, yet They Will Kill You does utilize a dark-tinged humor and narrative cleverness that appears in the equally-entertaining Ready or Not series. In Ready or Not, a lot of things come down to whether or not one is clever enough to use the rules established by Mr. Le Bail to their advantage. While the two entries in that series play with the notion of control, rules, and individual will, They Will Kill You borrows from the ideas of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno to construct its own exploration of individualism and personal responsibility. Devised as a building named for the very guide in Inferno, the structure has nine floors going up, an inverted design of the levels of Hell described in the poem. These floors don’t come into play as much as one might expect, Sokolov opting to focus on the get-in/get-out nature of Asia’s mission and the urgency caused by being hunted to maintain tension through the runtime. The audience will get glimmers of things, but, largely, it’s a motif to color the world that Asia has entered and must survive in rather than some kind of deep world-building tale. This may disappoint audiences who expect something more profound, but that’s not the kind of story Sokolov is telling. There are traces of something deep, something potentially intellectual, however, it’s mostly just scaffolding for the narrative to give credence to violence within. They Will Kill You is looking to be simple and nasty from start to finish — nothing more, nothing less.
The four featurettes included on the 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital editions delve more deeply into exactly this. Averaging seven minutes each, “Director’s Log: The Making of They Will Kill You” is the widest of the four as it offers the most general view of the making of the film by focusing on Sokolov’s experience making his first Hollywood film with commentary from members of the cast, crew, and producing team. The second, “Developing the Virgil,” is a bit of a guided tour by production designer Jeremy Reed (Dust Bunny; Hard Candy) who talks about everything from constructing the different apartments we see of the hundred-year-old building to the ways in which the production design helped convey the connection to Inferno to the ways in which small details served to communicate intricate details about the residents, and quite a bit more. The third and fourth featurettes, “Asia Reaves’ Attacks” and “Crafting Carnage,” focus on the action within the film by focusing on Beetz’s experience and then going wider. In both featurettes, we learn just how much Sokolov achieved practically through props, gags, movable sets, and a skilled stunt team — including, but not limited to, the striking several-on-one axe sequence that used real fire. Make sure to watch this last as there are several gags which will be spoiled for you. With the push toward A.I. to replace crew members or departments, as well as the reliance on post-production to create the world the actors inhabit, it’s wonderful to see just how much Sokolov incorporated tangible things when making the film. Even when it’s obviously fake, a real prop is often better than CG nonsense.
Zazie Beetz as Asia in New Line Cinema/Nocturna’s THEY WILL KILL YOU, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. © 2026 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Strangely, one would think the reliance on practical effects would lead to a consistent and higher bitrate for a 4K UHD edition, yet, not so much. The opening of the film holds in the 70 Mbps range, but then drops into 50-60s Mbps when Asia gets to the Virgil. It then holds there for the majority of the film until the final confrontation where it spikes back to the 70s. (For the unaware, 40 Mbps is the max for Blu-ray and 128 Mbps is the max for 4K UHD Blu-ray, so anything around or just above 40 is basically only slightly better than a Blu-ray presentation.) Considering that the film runs 94 minutes, it’s certainly not the length of the film that’s the problem as longer films require a great deal more compression in order to fit on the disc. But, without knowing the precise size of the disc (absent from the press release) and knowing that the 4K UHD disc holds just shy of 29 minutes of bonus features in 4K UHD, it may be because the special features are housed on the same disc, thereby taking up precious disc space. I know that removing Blu-rays from the 4K UHD editions is as much a cost-saving measure by the distributors as it is preventing buyers from having more than one physical format at a time; if the bonus features would be housed on the Blu-ray disc, the 4K UHD edition might actually deliver the visual premium experience that’s being sold. The film does look good, but, frankly, there’s little within the film that benefits from the 4K UHD visual portion. The sound, however, is fantastic with the extended rain sequences just enveloping the sound space so you feel like you’re out in it with the characters. Likewise, the sound design is so clear and crisp that each impact of hand, foot, or weapon comes at with auditory force. Truly, the sound is what makes the 4K UHD pick-up worth it.
L-R: Actor Zazie Beetz and director Kirill Sokolov on the set of New Line Cinema/Nocturna’s THEY WILL KILL YOU, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Graham Bartholomew. © 2026 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
They Will Kill You is a satisfying watch. Beetz positively demonstrates that she’s not only capable of holding down her own projects, but she’s an underrated actor for action titles. Likewise, co-stars Tom Felton (Harry Potter series), Heather Graham (Suitable Flesh), Myha’la Herrold (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Paterson Joseph (Wonka), and Arquette (True Romance), match her energy and the intentionally elevated tone of the film so that their larger-than-life performances correlate to the equally wild circumstances. Though They Will Kill You incorporates a few predictable moments (both from the utilized structure and by hanging specific narrative beats on Inferno), it succeeds in entertaining audiences with humor, heart, and explosive action that leaves a blood trail from the first floor all the way to ninth.
They Will Kill You Special Features:
- Director’s Log: The Making of They Will Kill You (7:34)
- Developing the Virgil (7:47)
- Asia Reaves’ Attacks (7:12)
- Crafting Carnage (5:11)
Available on digital April 28th, 2026.
Available on HBO Max June 12th, 2026.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD June 30th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Warner Bros. Pictures They Will Kill You webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply