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In the upcoming genre mash-up They Will Kill You, Zazie Beetz plays a desperate woman who takes a job as a housekeeper in a mysterious apartment, only to learn that she’s the target of a Satanic cult. Directed by Kirill Sokolov, who co-wrote the script with Alex Litvak, They Will Kill You combines horror, comedy, kung fu, and romance. And, apparently, it’s a true story. Sort of.
“Ten years ago, my wife and I rented an apartment on the 16th floor of a giant building. A week after we moved in, we realized that we were the only two people in the entire building under the age of 65,” Sokolov recalls to Den of Geek. “I started doing renovations in the kitchen, and behind the cabinet I found a huge hall leading into my neighbor’s apartment. My wife and I started a running joke: ‘We live in the middle of a cult, one night we’ll wake up, and they’ll be around our bed in cloaks and masks, and they’ll sacrifice us,’” he laughs.
“Then I watched Rosemary’s Baby and realized, ‘Oh my God, I was in that building! I was in that same situation,’” he continues. “Okay, it wasn’t enough to bring the Antichrist into the world, but that’s how this movie appeared.”
Only from such audacious beginnings could a movie like They Will Kill You appear. The film moves through various genres and tones, promising twist after twist, which is exactly what drew the cast to the project.
“I just loved whipping through this script,” gushes Beetz. “The way that it’s written is incredibly engaging. It’s funny and I was laughing through it. And then I met Kirill via Zoom, who is just such a bright and exuberant individual that I felt his passion and love for this story. It made me excited to jump on.”
“I loved Kirill’s first film [Why Don’t You Just Die? from 2018] and I thought he had a really interesting voice as a filmmaker,” adds Patricia Arquette, who plays superintendent/cult leader Lilith. “He throws so many genres together in this movie: martial arts comedy, gore, horror—all that kind of stuff.
“And then I loved this story. I loved Zazie getting to be this superhuman, driven by love to become a human warrior who’s working from goodness and fighting against evil.”
The story drew the attention of producers Andy Muschietti and Bárbara Muschietti, who helped get the film made. “We were sent this incredible script, and Andy and I read it right away,” remembers Bárbara. “Andy and I read hundreds of scripts, and we barely ever get surprised. This time, we read it and we both thought, ‘We want to see this movie!’
“And then we talked to Kirill, and he’s an atomic bomb of filmmaking. Immediately, you can tell that this guy knows what he’s doing, knows what he’s saying, knows what he’s writing.”
“The thing that really blew me away was the script,” Andy agrees, but he continues, “I then confirmed it by watching Why Don’t You Just Die? and then by meeting Kirill. He knows how to manage humor. He has this refined sense of visual sarcasm. Humor comes not from what’s being said, but from what’s being shown.
“There’s a grotesque slapstick to his work that I align very much with. You can see some of it in the script, but you see all of it in the movie. That’s something I really appreciate and wanted to see on screen.”
While he’s happy to take his producer’s compliment, Sokolov is quick to point out that the film’s mix of tones was built into the script.
“When Alex and I wrote the script, we knew we were doing horror, but we wanted to play with the genre. We wanted a movie that will surprise the audience not just with the story twists, but with the emotions they’ll get from it. So every 10 minutes, the movie takes a huge 180-degree turn to go in a different direction.
“I’m so appreciative and honored that Andy and Bárbara believed in this movie,” he gushes. “Then from that moment, you start to realize that if these guys believe in the movie, then maybe cool cast members will believe in it. And step-by-step, we found an amazing team and amazing crew to build it up.”
According to Shokolov, quality collaborators are all the more important, given the film’s mix of tones. “It’s very exciting to make this kind of movie, but it’s also very challenging because you can easily fall out with the audience when you bring a joke or something that turns the audience away. So you have to find actors who can manage these tonal shifts.
“I believe that if you have good characters on screen, you should hire really shitty people to play them. And, it’s the opposite too, so if you have bastards on screen, you bring in nice people to play them, because they immediately feel the conflict, and it’s like they won’t have to perform. And just our luck, we had to find all really nice people, because everyone’s an asshole in this movie.”
Joking aside, Sokolov’s cast of really nice people found his direction invaluable to guide them through the insanity of They Will Kill You. “Kirill kept reminding us that, yes, there’s action, and, yes, there’s comedy,” says Beetz. “But the most important part, at least for me, was the truth of the moment. If I can make it feel truthful in that moment, and the comedy is going to come with the way it’s edited, or with a needle drop, or with a cut.
“So I’m not playing against it or for it. I’m letting it be true, whatever’s happening.”
As Beetz’s comments reveal, “truth” is the watchword for They Will Kill You, no matter how over-the-top the action gets or how many genres it crosses. Which makes sense, given that the entire thing stems from the true story of a remodel in an apartment filled with the elderly.
They Will Kill You opens in theaters on March 27, 2026.
The post They Will Kill You: The True Story That Inspired the Horror Comedy appeared first on Den of Geek.
