They Will Kill You director Kirill Sokolov: "I'm a huge fan of Martin McDonagh’s gallows humour and irony, and that whole Irish existential dread"

An electrifying mix of comedy and horror, writer-director Kirill Sokolov’s new movie, They Will Kill You, centres on Asia Reeves (Zazie Beetz), an ex-convict looking for a new job in New York. Answering an ad for a housekeeper in a mysterious high rise, Asia soon discovers that several disappearances in the building are attributable to a satanic cult.

This is the cue for some action-packed mayhem, with Asia having to fight her way to safety. Featuring an equally brilliant supporting cast that includes the likes of Boogie Nights’ Heather Graham and screen legend Patricia Arquette, They Will Kill You takes narrative cues from the classic horror Rosemary’s Baby, while incorporating ironic humour in the manner of Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth.

“The big inspiration is Rosemary’s Baby,” nods the friendly Sokolov from LA, “just because it’s a building that belongs to a satanic cult. I talked about it with my co-writer Alex Litvak. It’s a classic genre trope, where you have a female protagonist who steps into this dark place and she’s surrounded by evil. We thought it would be so cool to make her not a classic victim, but rather a badass warrior.

“It starts like a classic horror, but then there’s a big twist and it turns into madness. That was a big inspiration for us and it got the studio excited. I love mixing genres, and surprising audiences not only with plot twists, but also with an emotional rollercoaster. I want the audience to be surprised they just laughed, and then for them to be scared, and then to laugh again.

“If you surprise people with emotion, it just gives you a much more exciting movie experience.”

Zazie Beetz in They Will Kill You

A Russian native, Sokolov is making his Hollywood bow with They Will Kill You, and he is naturally excited to assemble such a star-studded cast.

“Basically, it was a dream come true,” he affirms. “I came from a different industry and grew up watching these people. I was a fan-boy and Patricia Arquette was my movie crush from True Romance – probably for every boy who saw that movie, she became a crush! You sort of start with your idea of the dream cast – you have a name and the type of person you’d love to have.

“But it’s never the exact person, because it’s hard to get them. With Zazie, she believed in the story and said yes, and because people love and respect her so much, suddenly our dream cast became the actual cast. It was unbelievable, and working with those people, they are so professional and skilled, it was just pure joy. They give you so much more than you could expect.”

Already a celebrated star thanks to her work in the likes of True Romance and David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Arquette has kept the quality control remarkably high deep into her career. Having won a deserved Oscar for Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, she’s also starred in TV hits like Boardwalk Empire and Escape At Dannemora. It really is a hell of a track record.

“You’re always afraid, because people with that experience, they might be tired or have done a lot,” considers Sokolov. “They’ve worked with the best. This is my third movie, but my first in Hollywood, so you never know. But Patricia was so excited and hungry for something new. She has so much love for the profession, which is inspiring. You’re just like, ‘Oh, that’s why you’re the greatest.’”

Stylistically, in its mix of horror and comedy, They Will Kill You continues the approach Kirill has favoured throughout his career.

“Sam Raimi is a big influence, and I still have this on my wall,” he says, pointing to a signed Evil Dead poster in the background. “I think he was the main director for me during my teenage years. I loved him and grew up on his movies – I know them by heart. I learned how to make and craft movies watching his stuff, because it’s very rookie-friendly. The way he made movies, it basically made a lot of guys believe they could take a camera, and try to do their own stuff.

“I don’t know what kind of magic he had as a director, but he’s very friendly to movie lovers. Then, of course, there was a big influence from Tarantino, in terms of how he combines genres and does a big mash-up of everything. I’m a huge fan of Martin McDonagh’s gallows humour and irony, and that whole Irish existential dread, which is also very funny. I always it found so close to the Russian sensibility.”

Zazie Beetz on set with Kirill Sokolov

Expanding on his filmmaking background, the director notes it began in unconventional fashion, when he was studying physics in St. Petersburg.

“I worked in a lab, but I was always a big movie geek,” he recalls. “I remember the moment when I got the idea that I can actually get a camera, and go and do a short movie. It was the early YouTube era, and I somehow came across the Martin McDonagh short Six Shooter. I saw it and suddenly thought, ‘Wait a second.’ First of all, I didn’t know that 20-minute movies exist – you don’t need to do a whole movie.

“Also, it felt pretty simple to make, with only two or three locations. If you write a story, you can basically do it on a small camera. I was like, ‘Oh, I should try it.’ That was my first push into movie-making, so those guys were huge. But also South Korean filmmakers like Park Chan-wook. All of those filmmakers, they have this dark irony.

“The stories they tell could be really dark, but even inside the darkest things, you can find some light. Irony and laughter heal you – I really believe that. My personal point of view on life is that, when the darkest things happen to me, it’s really when I laugh the most. It’s kind of how you get through life, and that’s why the movies I’ve made have the same kind of tone.”

Did Sokolov get attention straight away from his short films?

“No, I didn’t get any!” he replies. “I made eight or nine shorts, and kept doing them just for fun. I travelled to festivals, but I didn’t have access to the industry – I still didn’t know any producers or what have you. I understood nobody would come to me, give me a script and say, ‘Direct it.’ So if you have to do something, just create the work for yourself. Basically, that’s why I started to write a lot of features.

“The third feature I wrote was Why Don’t You Just Die, and that was the first one I actually sold and turned into a movie. My biggest advice for guys who want to step into movies is, ‘Nobody will hire you – you need to sell yourself with a script and an exciting story.’ People who love your story will let you make it, but nobody will trust you without a background.

“So just write the stories – that’s the way to do it.”

It’s interesting that in the era of YouTube and online clips, a great script is still paramount to making a breakthrough.

“There is a lot of fear and frustration about AI, in terms of how it will change the industry and what everything will look like. It’s very terrifying, but I still think the core and heart of everything is a story. That element is a very unique and specific thing, which you process through your own personal experience and strange point of view. Studios, producers and audiences desire to see something original that grabs them.

“That’s why everything starts and ends with the story, and I hope that’s how I get to keep working.”

• They Will Kill You is in cinemas now.