Boy Kills World | review by Stephen Theaker

Tortured by the memory of his mother and sister’s public execution by their city’s totalitarian rulers during the annual Culling, a boy (known only as Boy) vows revenge. He trains hard in the jungle for years with the mysterious Shaman, who tests him physically, mentally and pharmacologically, and since his mentor is played by Yayan Ruhian, so spectacular in The Raid 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3, the kid picks up some amazing moves. Grown up and now played by It star Bill Skarsgård, he is on a rare trip into town for supplies when a new Culling begins. He can’t hold back, and the ultra-violent action begins.

The trailer for Monkey Man made much of Jordan Peele’s involvement, even though my understanding is that he didn’t get involved until after the film had been made, and it had very little in common with his films. It makes much more sense for the Boy Kills World trailer to do the same with Sam Raimi’s name, because first-time director Moritz Mohr’s sensibilities will appeal to anyone who likes the Evil Dead films. The blood flows freely, the jokes are dark, and the villains are gleefully amoral. I was also reminded of Paul Verhoeven in his science fiction pomp (Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers), albeit on a much lower budget.

The gimmick/USP is that Boy, having lost his speech and hearing when his family died, can’t remember his own voice, and so for his internal monologue he chooses a voice from a Streetfighter-style arcade fighting game. That voice becomes our narrator, the voiceover performed, hilariously, by H. Jon Benjamin of Archer fame (who also has a live-action cameo). We experience events as mediated via Boy’s consciousness, so if he doesn’t hear dialogue correctly, neither do we. Cutaways showing his attempts to visualise the misunderstood dialogue are imaginative and funny (and will reward rewatching with a pause button), although it sometimes feels a bit iffy that the main character he can’t understand is black, albeit with a big bushy beard.

It’s a film with an unusual tone – lying somewhere between the Far Cry or Saint’s Row games in their whackier moments – but it feels like everyone involved really gets it, even eleven-year-old Quinn Copeland, who is funny, tragic and adorable as the ghost of Boy’s little sister Mina, advising him in the midst of battle. I've mentioned the incredible Yayan Ruhian above, and the film gives him the perfect platform to demonstrate his physical abilities. Famke Janssen is perfect as the demented ruling matriarch, Hilda Van Der Koy, and Brett Gelman plays Gideon Van Der Koy, who looks like a Rasputinesque bear but just wants to be a writer, and is well aware of his role in this story. Sharlto Copley plays master of ceremonies again, as in Monkey Man, while Jessica Rothe is entertainingly vicious as June27, the ruling family’s assassin in a Daft Punk helmet.

As Basho, an ally Boy picks up along the way, Andrew Koji had me laughing out loud with every line of dialogue, particularly his promises to do “cart stuff” during fights (you had to be there) – and the cinema patron behind me laughed even louder each time, adding to the fun. And that’s what the film is, a huge amount of fun, if you like this kind of thing, full of twists, turns and imaginative, cartoonish violence. Again like Monkey Man, I might have preferred a clearer view of the action at times, but unlike that film, Boy Kills World keeps the action going and the tempo high throughout, and I doubt anyone would accuse it of not living up to its trailer. Stephen Theaker ****