Psychotronic Cinemavision: Boy Kills World

In an unknown dystopian city ruled by the Van Der Koy family, once a year, the leader of the family, Hilda (Famke Janssen) gathers twelve people who have been deemed enemies of the state and kills them on live television, in an event called “The Culling”. One year, a family consisting of a mother, daughter and young boy are part of The Culling, but the boy survives and is saved by a man known only as The Shaman (Yayan Ruhian / voice: Francois Chau). The ordeal left him deaf and mute, but he is trained by the Shaman to be the ultimate weapon against the Van Der Koys. Boy (Bill Skarsgard / voice: H. Jon Benjamin), besides being deaf and mute, also has a hard time differentiating reality from his hallucinations, mainly of his younger sister, Mina, that was killed during the Culling, along with his mother.  When an opportunity arises, Boy joins a small resistance group and takes part in an operation to kill Hilda during the most recent Culling broadcast, but not everything goes to plan and there are many twists and turns that await boy once he enters the Van Der Koy’s complex.

Boy Kills World is a dystopian action comedy written by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers and directed by first time director Moritz Mohr. It was released in the United States on April 24, 2024, after premiering at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.  Since old 80s video games are a big plot point a spin-off video game called Super Dragon Punch Force 3 was released on the same day.  Also in development is an animated series based on the film.  The film got mixed to average reviews with most praising Bill’s performance but feeling that the plot and characters were not well developed.

I am not a fan of overly gory films, and I was a bit trepidatious going into this movie after seeing just how bloody the trailer was, but having little to no knowledge of what this movie was really about, I was pleasantly surprised.  Where the critics are correct that this film is loose on plot and rather predictable, but let’s be honest, we don’t go see most action / fight movies for their Oscar winning plots! What I found sets this movie apart is the wonderful performance of Bill Skarsgard, who never says a word in the film, all of his dialogue is an inner monologue performed by H. Jon Benjamin and the wonderful offbeat humor often related to the fact that Boy is deaf and can’t hear anything but can read lips…mostly.  One character played by Isaiah Mustafa mumbles causing Boy to not be able to read his lips, what the audience hears from the character is gibberish, which made me laugh out loud several times.  The fight scenes are well choreographed, and the movie is action packed with more humor spattered (or splattered) within the fight sequences.  The gore is over the top, and one particular scene with a cheese grater is definitely cringe worthy and hard to watch.  This film had its own amazing style and comical sense of timing that I really enjoyed which pleasantly surprised me.  It isn’t going to be a film for everyone, but I heartily enjoyed it.