They Will Kill You

Zazie Beetz utterly slays in this gloriously gruesome horror/action thriller as a furious avenging sister taking on a cabal of 1-percenter satanists.

Everybody hates 1-percenters these days — seemingly no one more than trust-fund babies and limousine socialists — and I’m assuming satanists are still high on the list of low regard. So what better than a gloriously gruesome action thriller/horror where our fierce heroine takes on a cabal of obscenely rich devil-lovers?

Zazie Beetz absolutely slays in “They Will Kill You,” a decadently fun flick that’s part “Kill Bill,” part “300” and a smattering of “The Hunt,” or any number of films where the rich hunt the poor, but find the blood-soaked tables turned.

Most people probably know Beetz from playing the lucky Domino in “Deadpool 2” or the “Atlanta” TV show. There’s an old-timey but still veracious term for something she’s got that few movie actors do, even many famous ones: screen presence.

When Beetz is on the screen, it doesn’t matter who’s next to her because your eyes go straight to her. Something between her unnervingly direct stare, slinky smile and effortless cool silently speaks to you: watch this one.

Here she plays Asia Reaves, recently released from prison after 10 years for shooting her father. He was an abusive lout who tortured her and her kid sister, Maria (Myha’la). Asia ended up doing hard time for wounding him, and Maria suffered at his hands while she honed her stabby-stabby skills in the clink.

From Asia’s perspective, it felt like she abandoned her sibling right when she was most needed, and she’s determined not to repeat the mistake. So when she finds out Maria has wound up as a captive maid at an exclusive club for the billionaire set called the Virgil, she fakes her way in as a new hire. The head mistress, Lilith (Patricia Arquette), seems to immediately clock her but still gives her the grand tour.

Director Kirill Sokolov, who co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Litvak, wastes no time in getting to the bloodletting. Mere hours after arrival Asia finds herself attacked in her bedroom by a quintet wearing black cloaks and pig masks. But Asia has come prepared with a suitcase full of weapons, and slices and dices her assailants with tremendous skill and not a little glee.

Something then… happens, which I’ll not spoil, that quickly indicates to Asia that she’s in for one hell of a fight night. It’s literally her against an entire hotel of moneyed murderers and their lethal lackeys, and Asia will hew through them like a banshee on a trip to the deepest hells.

The amount of gore is impressive, as is the many methods in which it is unleashed. If you’ve a weak stomach then this cornucopia of severed limbs, arterial founts, decimated skulls and dangling viscera will necessitate the bringing of a barf bang to the theater.

If you’re the depraved sort who delights in this stuff, you’ll cheer as I did.

And it’s not just buckets of blood dumped clumsily onto the scene. Sokolov paints with style and panache, devising cleverly choreographed fight scenes that manage to be both brutal and balletic. Beetz clearly did the bulk of her stunts herself, and I appreciated that much of the action is beheld in full-body frame rather than diced up into frenetically edited shot slices where you can’t tell who’s stabbing who.

Look for Heather Graham and Tom Felton (Draco in the “Harry Potter” flicks) as a pair of the leading cultists and Asia combatants. You might think this is a step down for Graham, but she proves she doesn’t have a swollen head about it.

Honestly, “They Will Kill You” is the most fun I’ve had a movie theater in 2026. I knew Zazie Beetz had charisma but am atingle that she turns out to be an elite cinematic badass, too. I don’t care how many affluent a-holes you put in front of her, this avenging Valkyrie will always be the smart money.