Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill has remained a cultural touchstone for more than two decades, and filmmaker Kirill Sokolov says it was one of the inspirations behind his 2026 horror-action movie They Will Kill You. After the trailer for the Warner Bros. film was released, viewers quickly noticed echoes of Tarantino’s style, along with comparisons to genre films such as Ready or Not and You’re Next. Sokolov explained that Kill Bill influenced his thinking about “cult characters” — figures with enough style, personality, and emotional force to become iconic and instantly recognizable. He pointed specifically to Uma Thurman’s The Bride as a character who left a lasting impression and served as a benchmark for the kind of screen presence he wanted to create.
Sokolov said he had long wanted to build a character with that same mix of strength, vulnerability, and appeal. He credited Zazie Beetz, who stars in They Will Kill You, for bringing that idea to life. According to him, the goal was to create someone audiences would admire, support, and remember, even while facing brutal circumstances. In that sense, Kill Bill was less of a direct template than a reference point for building a memorable hero.
The film’s story began with a personal experience. Sokolov said the idea came to him after moving with his wife into a large 17-floor apartment building. The setting inspired a running joke between them that the building must belong to a cult, and that joke eventually developed into the premise of the movie. In They Will Kill You, Beetz plays Asia, a young woman who poses as a maid in a high-rise building in search of her missing sister, Maria. Her investigation soon leads her into something far more dangerous: a hidden satanic temple where she becomes the group’s latest intended sacrifice.
The movie’s visual and tonal similarities to Kill Bill have been easy for audiences to spot, from the violence and dismemberment to the image of a determined heroine fighting through waves of enemies. But Sokolov said the movie draws from many more sources as well. He described it as a blend of influences from anime, Hong Kong action cinema, Japanese samurai films, and the horror style associated with Sam Raimi. He also noted that Kill Bill itself is a collage of inspirations, including kung fu movies, spaghetti westerns, and anime, which makes it fitting that his film would follow a similar path of borrowing and remixing genres.
For viewers interested in stylish, bloody genre mashups, They Will Kill You positions itself as both an homage and a fresh take, with Kill Bill serving as one of its most visible influences.
