They Will Kill You (2026)
There is a particular flavour of genre film that announces its intentions in the title and then dares you to keep up. They Will Kill You, arriving in 2026 from the production partnership of Nocturna, New Line Cinema, Domain Entertainment and Film Afrika, is very much that kind of picture. Its premise sits comfortably in a long tradition of paranoid, building-as-trap horror, the sort of story where a seemingly ordinary domestic setting turns out to conceal something rotten at its core. Think Roman Polanski's New York, or the slow-burn dread of any number of films in which the neighbours are far too friendly and the lease terms are suspiciously favourable. The Satanic cult thread, in particular, taps into a strand of American cultural anxiety that has never quite gone away, cycling back into popular entertainment every decade or so with fresh clothes and a new address. That the film layers horror, action and comedy on top of one another is either a sign of genuine creative ambition or a hedge against committing to any single mood. At ninety-five minutes, it has just enough room to try all three without necessarily mastering any of them.
Behind the camera is Kirill Sokolov, the Russian writer-director who made a striking impression with his debut Hardcore Henry-era-adjacent sensibility and went on to develop a reputation for films that are polished but unremarkable in concept yet genuinely surprising in execution. Sokolov has a clear fondness for kinetic violence, saturated colour and a slightly hyper-real visual register that owes as much to graphic novels as to conventional cinema. Shooting across the United States and South Africa, the production has a curious, slightly disorienting quality to its geography, which may well be intentional given the material. The South African locations, dressed and shot to read as New York interiors and backlots, give certain sequences an uncanny, slightly off-kilter atmosphere that works in the film's favour, at least in its earlier stretches. For those interested in how occult-flavoured unease can be handled with considerably more restraint, our review of Late Night with the Devil is worth a read alongside this one.
The cast assembled here is genuinely interesting on paper. Zazie Beetz, who has spent the better part of a decade moving between prestige television, superhero blockbusters and smaller independent work, takes the lead and brings with her a grounded physicality that the role clearly demands. Myha'la, who announced herself as a performer of real presence in Industry, appears alongside her, and the dynamic between the two carries a great deal of the film's emotional weight. Paterson Joseph, a genuinely versatile British actor whose range runs from Shakespearean theatre to broad comedy, takes on a markedly different register here, which will likely raise an eyebrow or two among fans who know him primarily from his comedic work. Tom Felton continues his post-Harry Potter project of finding roles that sit well outside his most famous association, and Heather Graham rounds out a principal cast that, on paper at least, suggests a film with real intentions. Whether those intentions are fully realised is, of course, another matter entirely.
Kirill Sokolov’s 2026 action-thriller They Will Kill You has an interesting premise, I have to admit. It kicks off with two sisters managing to escape their captors, only for one to be dragged back while the other gets away clean. Fast forward ten years, and the surviving sister is on a relentless mission to track down and rescue her missing sibling. What starts off as a cracking, classic revenge flick (very reminiscent of Kill Bill in its stylised choreography, striking outfits, and gratuitous blood spray) takes a massive left turn halfway through, suddenly morphing into a full-blown supernatural, satanic action movie.
When it comes to the execution, the acting is perfectly "fine" across the board, doing exactly what the script requires without overreaching. The fight choreography is genuinely decent, too. It’s certainly not going to dethrone John Wick anytime soon, but it’s a solid cut above average and keeps the adrenaline pumping. There are some properly great, visually striking set pieces in here as well. My personal favourite was a brutal fight scene featuring a flaming axe, where the screen is plunged into pitch darkness, illuminated only by the fiery weapon and its unfortunate victims. I also have to say it was absolutely brilliant to see Paterson Joseph (forever etched in my mind as Johnson from British TV royalty Peep Show) showing up in a completely different, much darker role.
But for all its stylistic flair and bloody good fun, the film ultimately trips over its own ambition. I feel like the narrative completely collapses under the weight of its increasingly convoluted story towards the end. Just as it should be delivering a massive emotional climax, the tonal shift into full satanic supernatural territory leaves the payoff feeling surprisingly hollow and not all that emotive. You spend the whole runtime rooting for these sisters, but by the time the credits roll, the emotional resonance has been entirely lost in the mystical mumbo-jumbo.
They Will Kill You is a wildly entertaining, visually inventive ride for the first hour, but it ultimately sacrifices its emotional core for a messy, overcomplicated finale.
They Will Kill You lands in a crowded space occupied by films that are fun to watch with a drink in hand but that leave you slightly unsatisfied by the time you are back in your coat. It is the kind of film that will find its audience on streaming, probably late on a Friday night, and will be enjoyed for exactly what it is in those first sixty minutes before the conversation in the room starts to pick up again during the finale. Sokolov demonstrates enough craft throughout that his next project will remain worth watching, and the performances, particularly from Beetz and Joseph, suggest that better material could produce something genuinely memorable from this group of collaborators. For now, though, They Will Kill You is a film that starts a fight it cannot quite finish.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2026 | Watched: 2026-06-15
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for They Will Kill You (2026) on YouTube
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