Kirill Sokolov on “They Will Kill You”: Satanic Cults and Creating 2026’s Most Visceral Action-Horror Film

Russian-born filmmaker Kirill Sokolov is lauded for his singular cinematic vision with a mix of gut-wrenching visceral horror and cutting humor.  

His first feature film made within the Hollywood Studio system is They Will Kill You, starring  Zazie Beetz with an ensemble cast including Patricia Arquette, Myha’la, Heather Graham, Tom Felton, and Paterson Joseph. Kirill directed the film, wrote the screenplay (along with Alex Litvak), and was as an Executive Producer.

They Will Kill You unleashes a blood-spattered, horror-action-comedy in which a young woman must survive the night at the Virgil, a demonic cult’s mysterious hotel to avoid becoming their next offering to the Dark Lord.

Sokolov shares his insights on making his first big budget film for a wider, global horror audience.

How did you transition They Will Kill You from a Russian film to a more Western style film?

I am kind of still alien in the U.S. and I fully understand that. When Alex Litvak and I worked on the script we talked about the need to create a world that will be believable, but knowing you still come from a different background.

We had to find those hooks or those anchor points that will let, me as a foreigner or alien, tell a believable story in the U.S. that happens in the U.S., for U.S. audience. We understood what the characters should be, without specifically making them immigrants. Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) is a stranger in the community she steps into at the Virgil. People in that community look at her like doesn’t belong there. I understand that emotional part.

Describe the world of the film.

Basically it’s a cult movie. When you dive into cult structure you see how they operate; they abuse power and lure people at worst time of their lives. They use them and drain their money. You see that it’s a very nice metaphor to what’s happens when people in power deal with people who can’t fight back. In this case, Asia takes a low-paying housekeeping job at the Virgil to escape domestic violence.

Originally, there was even less backstory regarding the cult. In the script, we explained even less. When we had test screenings, people really questioned that. They need more idea of who is behind the cult and how it all works.

Every character in this movie is much bigger than life. I thought if we operate on this archetype level, I don’t need to go very deep into details, because you understand the concepts and idea of it. But, at least give the viewers some basics of how it all operates.

Kirill Sokolov. Photo by Sami Heiskanen

Funnily enough, we had a system of how you join the cult during development, but it isn’t mentioned in the film. We treated it like a golf club in LA for very rich people. You need to talk to twelve people who already belongs to the cult, they will interview you, and if every one of them approves, you will be able to join and pay money, and in our case, a sacrifice. You can get in, but you can’t leave it until you die.

We also looked at how to make the symbols new and original. We chose a talking pig. If you look at the movie, you will see that the evil comes from people and our satanic representation doesn’t do anything evil itself.

People are the minions that tries to please and serve the deity. If it’s so passive, how can it make people do bad things? You don’t even know if it’s real or not. I immediately remembered Lord of the Flies as a reference point.

Where does the horror comes from?

It’s interesting because it’s not a classic horror film.

That’s both a benefit and a curse of this movie. We knew that from scratch. It plays with your expectations. It promises you one thing, and then takes you in a very different direction. I love those games. I love to surprise the audience.

I believe that the horror genre is so wide and it absorbs so many type of stories and tones that you can fit in it. The audience who appreciates horror is probably the most open-minded and prepared for any kind storytelling.

That’s why I thought we can start They Will Kill You  as classic horror, and then we slowly shift the direction. We start from a very common concept, like Ready or Not or Rosemary’s Baby – a classic female protagonist steps into a building, it’s a scary, dangerous place, and we understand that she will fight for her life. Maybe, what usually would happen in classic horror movies, closer to the end, she will get her empowerment, and she will maybe survive – maybe not?

And we thought, how do we surprise the audience. Let’s just make Asia the most dangerous person in the room. She doesn’t need her empowerment; she is already really tough. That immediately shifts the tone, the genre expectation, and we move from Rosemary’s Baby type of horror into a more postmodernist, ironic kind of film.

But now we need another twist, because she can’t just be the biggest danger in the room. Then you come up with story twists that organically influence the tone and genre of the movie. So we added the supernatural element. We are landing in Sam Raimi territory now, because a lot of funny and gory stuff happens.

It was exciting for me to try to push the boundaries of genre and typical storytelling as much as possible, see how far we can go, and see if we can succeed stitching it all together.

Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

What role did the comedy play in the story?

It’s my personal point of view for life. I really try to find humor and laugh at everything. It helps a lot when you go through dark moments on your life. It’s probably a self-defense mechanism to protect yourself.

If you take away the irony, the comedy and tonal style, the story is very dark. It’s sad and disturbing. But I believe that I want to give the audience a good time. I want them to have fun and I want them to leave the cinema with a smile on their faces. This helps me tell any kind of story I want, no matter how dark it is, because I know that I can shape it so it still would be fun.

Did you develop the set pieces separately or were they always on the page?

I’m a writer/ director and I cut both of my previous movies. When you know all steps, it’s much easier to write action.

Through the fights, you can understand as much about character as through the dialogue; so you try to be very precise with what specifically characters do, how they react, and how they move.

My co-writer Alex and I, were very detailed. Asia is a sassy character, she came out prison, she’s a tough brawler. She doesn’t know specific fighting techniques, but she knows how to fight, how to throw a punch, and how to get beaten; so she’s not afraid of that.

Most people who come after her never fought in their life. They have a specific thing that will help them, but at the same time, they don’t know how to fight back. So knowing that, you immediately build up very specific movements, or comedic moments, or action moments, knowing the character is afraid of pain, or they are clumsy, or they don’t know how to use this weapon.

The whole movie was storyboarded in great detail. I brought the storyboards to the stunt crew and we started to build the sets. At first it just was live version of storyboards. Then Zazie has her own specific physicality, and I want the camera to add energy to it,

Sharon (Heather Graham) Photo courtesy of Warner Bnos. Pictures

Is there a scene in the movie that speaks most to you?

There are a couple of shots in the mattress sequence with Zazie and Sharon (Heather Graham), when we see Zazie through the hall, the mattress falls, and feathers blow up, and they fall down, and we have this beautiful standoff of two gorgeous women full of rage.

Everything I love about movies somehow came together in this one specific moment. I think I’m making a movie of my childhood dreams. It’s not the brightest moment of the movie, but personally, that moment is standalone.

by Staff Writer

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