They Will Kill You

 

I admire Zazie Beetz's chutzpah for taking on the bruising lead in Kirill Sokoloz's comedic guts-and-gore flick They Will Kill You, in which Beetz, an alt-cinema darling, plays a housekeeper in a swanky New York City apartment building that has a dark secret. Think Rosemary's Baby (1968) meets Hellraiser (1987).

Sokoloz wastes no time getting down to business and giving the audience what the movie poster promises -- a bloody Beetz kicking ass.

Beetz's Asia Reaves shows up for work on her first day and discovers the residents of the "Virgil" are out to get her. Yes, Virgil is the name of the poet who led Dante on his trip through Hell. But the tenants mistake Beetz's Asia Reaves for a defensive maid, which she most definitely isn't, and they pay dearly for assuming.

Asia is on a mission to find and rescue her younger sister Maria, (Myha'la), from whom she has been separated for the 10 years after the violent encounter that opens the picture. She tracked her sister to the Virgil with the help of a detective.

Asia is greeted by the creepily officious building manager Lilly (Patricia Arquette) and a coterie of tenants bearing unwanted gifts. In no time, heads are rolling, literally!

The cast of creeps -- which includes Heather Graham and Tom Felton -- seems to be having a blast with the outlandish doings that build to a crashing crescendo of viscera and goo. I expect some sophisticates might roll their eyes at the ridiculous brutality while admiring the camera work, film editing and thundering soundtrack.

They Will Kill You is a tidy 90-minutes of hellish havoc.