MFF Quick Reviews – They Will Kill You (2026) / Apex (2026) / Cold Storage (2026)

They Will Kill You (2026) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

1. Grade – Neat idea
2. Zazie Beetz is legit. She carries the film and I’d love to see in more action movies
3. The film has stuck with me. I smile whenever I think about it
4. Patricia Arquette’s character and Jennifer Jason Leigh (from Fargo S5) need a spinoff movie. The characters exist in completely different worlds, but I love their accents. 
5. I love the opening action scenes. It’s full of surprises. 
6. Writer/Director Kirill Sokolov has had a unique journey

The world needs more movies like They Will Kill You. The $20 million budgeted action comedy horror film is a delightful experience that involves a tough-as-nails character named Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) battling a group of Satan worshippers inside a haughty high-rise named The Virgil. The reason the world needs more movies like They Will Kill You is because all it wants to do is entertain and give audiences a blood-soaked carnage fest featuring a performer who put in a lot of work. Zazie Beetz trained for four months to become a badass “prison fighter” and she’s totally believable as she battles the denizens of The Virgil. The hyper-stylized violence, never fully works, and the opening bedroom battle is the action highlight (the rest of the action scenes are fun, but not as thrilling), but it’s neat watching Beetz use a flaming axe to destroy anyone who gets in her way. There are many twists and turns so I don’t want to spoil the film, however, expect hallway battles, rolling eyeballs, air duct chases, and a fun accent from Patricia Arquette.

Apex (2026) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

1. Grade – Fun stuff
2. Never trust homemade jerky sold at gas stations (if you’re in a movie)
3. Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton put in a lot of physical work, and it greatly helps the movie
4. I like the usage of actual locations, they add a lot to the film. 
5. Never trust strangers who tell you about isolated rapids that are far away from the main river runs. 
6. I want to go kayaking now

The best thing that can be said about Apex is that Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton put themselves through hell to make the film. Shot around the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia, the survival horror film is unlike many other Netflix films because it feels like it was filmed in the actual wilderness, away from walls of green screens. Visual effects were used, but it’s nice seeing Theron kayaking through rapids and climbing actual rocks. Director Baltasae Kormákur (watch the 2024 film Touch now) is no stranger to survival films as he’s helmed The Deep (2012), Everest (2015), Adrift (2022), Beast (2022), and now Apex. He seems to like putting characters in horrifying situations and seeing how they behave, adapt and struggle to survive. It’s a fun niche, and after pitting characters against nature and beasts, he’s put a character named Sasha (Charlize Theron) up against a shredded serial killer who eats his victims (Taron Egerton). What follows is a fun cat-and-mouse chase film that involves broken legs, rock climbs, and mysterious cave systems. Apex feels like a fun throwback survival film, and that’s pretty great. 

Cold Storage (2026)

Quick Thoughts:

1. Grade – Love it
2. Cold Storage is a likable film
3. Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell are a likable duo
4. Between Cold Storage and Barbarian, Campbell has good luck with “underground” movies. 
5. David Koepp’s amiable script does a fine job combining sci-fi elements with cheeky humor
6. Conveniently placed backpack nukes should be used in more creature features 

In a perfect world, we’d get more creature features like Cold Storage (10 a year sounds nice). Horror action comedies are wonderful, and Cold Storage is akin to Tremors (1990), Alligator (1980), Gremlins (1984), Grabbers (2012), Black Sheep (2006), Slither (2006), and a less-gnarly Cabin in the Woods (2011). It’s not as gnarly or violent as Slither or Cabin in the Woods, but it tells a tidy story involving infectious fungus that can destroy the world. 

The film revolves around a pair of employees (Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell) dealing with a deadly fungus during their night shift at a self storage facility. The storage facility is located above a shuttered underground military cold storage laboratory, which has been long forgotten and not maintained. The fungus was placed in the facility by Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and Trini Romano (Lesley Manville) decades prior, and it’s up to them to destroy the fungus when it leaks out of the facility. 

Cold Storage belongs to Georgina Campbell (after Barbarian, The Watchers, and Psycho Killer it’s fun seeing her have fun) and Joe Keey, who plays a character named Travis “Teacake” Meacham. Both Campbell and Keery deliver David Koepp’s dialogue wonderfully (That f**king deer just took the f**king elevator), and seem to be having fun as they battle deadly fungus in neat sets designed by production designer Elena Albanese.

Incredibly Quick Reviews (more to come about them)

Ghost Elephant – Werner Herzog is the best. I love this documentary

Obex – Fun sci-fi film that feels like David Lynch made a Zelda movie. 

Buffet Infinity – Neat movie. I can’t wait to research the production.