“Our production designer is a mad genius,” says director and co-writer Kirill Sokolov of Jeremy Reed, his production designer for “They Will Kill You.” In the blood-soaked, high-octane horror-action-comedy, a young woman (Zazie Beetz) must survive the night at the Virgil, a demonic cult’s mysterious and twisted death-trap of a lair, before becoming their next offering in a uniquely brazen, big screen battle of epic kills and wickedly dark humor. The film also stars Myha’La, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, and Patricia Arquette.
“The movie mostly is inside of this Virgil building, so it’s all interior,” continues Sokolov. “Making an interior movie, you understand that people can get tired of staring at four walls, and you have to be very clever and creative in a way to make people excited – how to show the same sets differently, how to extend this world, even not leaving the place. The Virgil is a nine-floor building, because we used Dante’s ‘Inferno’ as inspiration, where every floor is literally a different circle of hell. That gave us this idea of how we dress the floors, what kind of theme belongs to each floor, what is actually happening on that floor. So, we used this structure to develop the visual style and design of the place.”
Originally, the Virgil was going to be a scary tower in the middle of nowhere, says co-writer Alex Litvak. “But we quickly pivoted and landed on the idea of an exclusive condo complex in the heart of the city – a seemingly welcoming Rosemary’s Baby-style community most would kill [or die] to live in. That helped fuel some of the film’s themes: class, disposable people, the struggle to belong, to find a home, and the cost that comes with it. We also played with the idea that each floor represents a level of Hell. At one point the metaphor was more explicit, but we felt the building was starting to overshadow the characters, so we dialed that back. Suffice it to say, we think we’re only scratching the surface with the Virgil – and there may be more places like it all over the world…”
Zazie Beetz and director Kirill Sokolov on the set of “They Will Kill You”
Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Sokolov says that as the floor changes, the style of action changes as well. “As we move from floor to floor, the world changes, the circles of hell changes, so the vibe of the fights and the choreography also will be different,” he says. “We start with very grounded and naturalistic fights, a little bit exaggerated. Then we go into some kind of Viking shit with epic scale and much more graphic. Then we go full anime, crazy kung fu type of fighting. They sound different, they look different and they feel different and, I hope, bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more exciting.”
It certainly helped that the film’s producers are such horror fans – and respected names in the genre – themselves. “They Will Kill You” is produced by Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, who directed and produced, respectively, horror hits “It,” “It Chapter Two” and “Mama.”
Shares Litvak, “When we took the script to market, we were fortunate to have two competing buyers. For us, the goal wasn’t just to sell the script – it was to make the movie without losing the unconventional style and the inspired madness we had baked into the pages. The moment we met Andy and Barbara, it was clear we weren’t dealing with producers so much as fellow artists who immediately understood what we were trying to do. They believed in the tone of the film and supported our mission from the start. That ultimately made the choice to go with them a no-brainer, and it turned out to be the best decision we could have made.”
Everyone is invited to visit The Virgil when “They Will Kill You” opens only in cinemas March 25, 2026.
