There are films that need a lot of heavy lifting to come to fruition. The ones with a minimal storyline need all of the other parts to coalesce properly to make for an engaging experience. They Will Kill You is one such project. The underlying story is slight to say the least, so it relies quite heavily on other elements.
Asia Reeves (Zazie Beetz) and her sister Maria (Myha’la) have an abusive father. When things reach a flash point, Asia ends up in jail, and Maria returns to the care of her father. After a decade in prison, Asia is released and finds employment working as a maid in The Virgil, an exclusive high-rise apartment building in New York City. During her first night there, the crazy comes out to play.
Asia is accosted by things that make no literal sense, and she runs headlong into the realms of the supernatural. Thus begins a long battle to fight off these otherworldly beings, rescue her sister from enslavement and escape the confines of her surroundings. That is pretty much the entirety of the storyline, thus the need for the aforementioned heavy lifting.
The set design evokes a video platform game, but a decent amount of imagination is employed in dispatching the numerous bringers of peril. This is delivered in a very tongue-in-cheek manner, and eventually the action becomes somewhat pedestrian. As battles are won, the tension about the outcome diminishes. The saving grace is Zazie Beetz; she is a bona fide badass, and her ultimate fate is worthy of attention.
Rob Hudson
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