Commentary: ‘They Will Kill You’ Is A Spiral Of Absurdity

There are two big categories of films: those that take themselves seriously  and those that do not. Once a film decides it’s going to venture into the realm of absurdity, there’s a range as to just how wild and crazy things can get. Sometimes, it becomes a race to the bottom, where movies try to be as ridiculous as possible without any regard for logic or reason. But it also helps if films reveal their absurdity gradually over time rather than all at once. In the case of They Will Kill You, it introduces absurdity in a downward spiral that seems to go on forever.

The film centers on a woman named Asia Reeves (Zazie Beetz), who tries to run away with her sister when they are young only to run into trouble with the law. She loses track of her sibling for years and, eventually, learns that she went missing at a high-rise building named the Virgil. After stealing the identity of a perspective maid to sneak inside, Asia discovers that the building is actually home to a satanic cult that sacrifices individuals in exchange for immortality. Having trained to become a killer while in prison, Asia has to fight through a relentless stream of cultists to save her sister, eventually battling the Devil in the form of a severed pig head.

Surprisingly, the film starts out very grounded. It involves a woman on the run with her sister, trying to escape an abusive household before getting caught by the police. But slowly, the film’s stylized editing and cinematography starts to take hold. Eventually, when the action begins, the story becomes an absurd exercise in ultraviolence. It then gets it weirder when the cultists Asia slaughtered come back to life, revealing their bizarre immortality. It gets even crazier from there with rolling eyes and a literal pig-headed final villain. Going into the film blind is a wild experience as the absurdity only gets more … well, absurd … with every passing minute.

They Will Kill You is now streaming on HBO Max.