The team behind They Will Kill You had a very clear vision in mind for how to make sure that viewers will enjoy their stay with the horror-comedy feature.
Writer-director Kirill Sokolov’s film premiered at SXSW on Tuesday ahead of Warner Bros. releasing it in theaters March 27. Stars Zazie Beetz, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham and Patricia Arquette were among those taking part in an onstage conversation after the screening, along with co-writer Alex Litvak and producers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti.
They Will Kill You centers on a newly hired housekeeper (Beetz) at a mysterious New York City hotel known as the Virgil. She soon learns that the building is the headquarters for a satanic cult, with the members having chosen to murder her as a sacrifice.
“This movie is very different,” Sokolov told the crowd as he thanked the studio for believing in the film. “It’s very crazy, and it’s very original.”
Indeed, the gory and action-packed film has plenty of absurdist flair, including a severed body part getting a surprising spotlight at various points in the movie. That said, Sokolov was dead set on making sure things didn’t get overly outlandish.
“Every single person I talked [to] about this script, our first conversation was, ‘Please, just don’t make it camp. I hope it won’t be campy,’” said the filmmaker known for the 2021 Russian feature No Looking Back. “And I promised everyone it won’t be, and guys, you can judge.”
That led Arquette to clarify, “I love camp,” spurring a burst of applause from the audience.
Beetz praised the screenplay as one that she just could not put down. “Sometimes, it can take me a long time to get through something, but this one was just written with such humor and such pace,” she said. “I was laughing and just engaged the entire time.”
For her part, Graham noted her appreciation that They Will Kill You allows its female characters to hold their own in the limb-detaching battles.
“Actually, I want to shout out Kirill because usually there’s a bunch of guys in the movie, and there’s one female character,” the actress said. “You wrote a lot of great female characters in this movie, so thank you.”
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