Boy Kills World (2024) Lionsgate/Action-Comedy-Thriller RT: 111 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore throughout, language, some drug use, sexual references) Director: Moritz Mohr Screenplay: Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers Music: Ludvig Forssell Release date: April 26, 2024 (US) Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Famke Janssen, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Yayan Ruhian, Nicholas Crovetti, Cameron Crovetti, Quinn Copeland, Sharlto Copley, Andrew Koji, H. Jon Benjamin.
Rating: *** ½
How truly bonkers is Boy Kills World? I’ll tell you how bonkers it is. The internal dialogue of the deaf-mute protagonist is provided by an actor by the name of H. Jon Benjamin. The name might not sound familiar, but you’ve definitely heard the voice before. It’s Bob Belcher, the patriarch from the animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers. He also voices the titular character in Archer. Hearing Bob Belcher’s voice over all the bone-crushing violence and bloody mayhem makes Boy Kills World feel all the more like an insane fever dream.
The boy of the title Boy Kills World is literally a man named Boy (Skarsgard, It). Set in a futuristic totalitarian dystopia, he wants revenge against the evil leaders who executed his mother and sister as enemies of the state. After he somehow escapes, he’s taken in by a drug-crazed lunatic named “Shaman” (Ruhian, The Raid) who mercilessly trains him to become an instrument of death. Finally, the day comes when Boy unleashes his full fury on the baddies that wronged him.
The top dog of this futuristic hellhole is Hilda van der Koy (Janssen, X-Men), a sociopath who rules with an iron fist. Her regime, a family operation, includes her daughters Melanie (Dockery, Downton Abbey) and July 27 (Rothe, Happy Death Day), son Gideon (Gelman, Stranger Things) and son-in-law Glen (Copley, District 9).
In what must be a nod to The Hunger Games, there’s a yearly event called “The Culling” in which troublemakers are rounded up and executed on live television. Here’s where it gets weird. The executioners are dressed as characters from Frosty Puffs, a popular breakfast cereal once enjoyed by Boy and his kid sister Mina (Copeland, Punky Brewster) who’s still with him via hallucinations.
There have been an unusual number of really good movies these past couple of months. The list includes Drive-Away Dolls, Love Lies Bleeding, Immaculate, Late Night with the Devil, Monkey Man, Sting, Abigail and now Boy Kills World. It’s wild! The plot is a no-brainer even with the big twist in the final act. Director Moritz Mohr, making his feature film debut, keeps things moving along at a rapid pace. The action sequences are pure dynamite. Boy is an unstoppable killing machine who punches, kicks, slices and dices his way through scores of costumed henchman with relative ease. Mohr doesn’t hold back either. He goes full tilt boogie crazy with the violence and gore. Boy Kills World is the very definition of OTT.
I typically don’t like movies that play like live-action video games, but I’m going to make an exception in the case of Boy Kills World. It works in its favor because it’s part of Boy’s character. His inner voice, the Bob’s Burgers guy, is inspired by a video game he played as a child. When he fights, he’s like the indestructible hero from the game. It makes sense to do it this way. Same goes for the characters more or less. Other than Boy- we learn all about his backstory through flashbacks that might or might not be hallucinations- there isn’t a whole hell of a lot to them. July 27 (yes, that’s her name) is a ruthless enforcer who wears a helmet with an LED screen that shows the words she’s thinking. That’s a neat idea actually. The rest of the family is…. well, they’re basically a media empire that runs on dysfunction. The good news is the actors seem to be having fun. Skarsgard does commendable work as Boy, perhaps a sign of what’s to come when he plays the lead in The Crow reboot later this year.
I don’t want to get too hung up on minutiae here. I don’t think the usual rules of film criticism apply to Boy Kills World. It’s a frenetic, loud, colossally dumb action flick that caters to the short attention span demographic. Yet I can’t bring myself to hate or dislike it. There’s something brilliant about it actually. I love the way Mohr just says “f*** it” and lets everybody go nuts. I had a blast watching it. Now I just have to remember to send my brain an apology note.
