Boy Kills World (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, April 26

R Running Time: 110 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Action movies with short attention spans and graphic violence appeals to a particular demographic and Boy Kills World is the latest entrant into this very specific genre.
Bill Skarsgård definitely understood the assignment.
An admittedly clever concept where a deaf and mute man’s inner monologue is narrated for audiences…

NO

But that narration, much like the movie, loses steam and the novelty of the concept the longer the movie goes.
Not for the squeamish. People get decimated in Boy Kills World.
Achieves a middle-school boys level of intellect. The violence, the rapid quick-cutting, the quips and presentation overstays its welcome BEFORE a twist extends the film another half hour or so.

OUR REVIEW

I appreciate that sometimes movies exist and allow people to escape into worlds other than their own. For some, this takes the form of a romantic film where someone dreams of being swept off their feet. For others, a mystery can whisk them away into the intensity of solving a case. Documentaries can educate us on stories and experiences we otherwise would never experience. A comedy can make us wish for a simpler world where laughing cures all ills.

And then we have Boy Kills World. A movie which allows us to experience what life is like for a young boy, around 13 years of age, who has his sister and mother murdered while standing next to him and is then trained to gain revenge by a sadistic shaman (Yayan Ruihan) for about a decade or so. Rendered deaf and mute, he silently seeks to kill and maim everyone connected to, or keeping him from, the woman who orchestrated the killing of his family.

Another one of those movies you can just check out, connect with, vibe with, and escape into, amirite?

Written as if it was conceived by the minds of middle school boys, drunk on Mountain Dew and high on Sour Patch Kids, Boy Kills World takes the rather novel approach of having its main character not utter one syllable throughout the entire film. Instead, the character we come to know as “Boy” is played by Bill Skarsgård, buff, shredded and a straight-up killing machine. Far removed from his days as Pennywise the Clown in the It movie franchise, Skarsgård is quite the talented muted actor. His evocative face and ability to convey emotions effectively with the shifting of a brow or the tensing or relaxing of facial muscles is impressive.

Instead of Boy’s voice, we hear his inner dialogue, voiced by veteran character voiceover actor H. Jon Benjamin (“Bob’s Burgers”, “Archer”). Benjamin is witty, expressive, and also unable to add much to the proceedings, beyond underscoring the obvious moments writer/director Moritz Mohr gives us amid a mesmerizing, exhaustive visual mixtape of dismemberment, gore, and graphically violent killings.

(You’ll never look at a cheese grater the same way again, that’s for sure!)

The problem with Mohr’s film is that, from a storytelling standpoint, this is all very thin. It only toys with the concept of a deaf and mute hero (or anti-hero perhaps in this case) and never fully commits to the idea, outside of Skarsgård never speaking. A tacked on “twist” adds an unnecessary half hour or so to a film that struggles to fill 80 minutes.

Set in a dystopian world where a dictatorial leader (Famke Janssen) calls for “The Culling” - a once-a-year murdering of all her supposed enemies - Boy survives and is trained by that shaman - and then seeks revenge while interacting with the ghostly spirit of his deceased younger sister Mina (Quinn Copeland). Copeland is actually quite engaging in the role and more than holds her own alongside Skarsgård.

Let’s remember though: this is Boy Kills World, not Boy Makes Nice with Dead Sister. Those moments exist to simply buy us a little bit of down time until Skarsgård ravages more and more foes like a character in a TV-MA video game. Heads are sliced off, gory wounds rip open, blood flies everywhere. Death is constant.

And before parents freak out that their kids may want to see a movie this violent and this visceral, just know it is likely your kid plays a video game with this content in their bedroom without your knowledge.

So…that’s basically all there is here. One person smarter than me called Boy Kills World a Dollar Store version of Deadpool. I mean, maybe. Mohr, developing the concept with co-creator Arend Remmers, definitely has some witty moments baked into the recipe of what they are trying to cook here. But after a while, everything just feels exhausting, the movie lacks any novelty, and the kills lose their shock value.

Though it offers a unique premise with potential, Boy Kills World fails to remain compelling enough to keep us invested in the carnage and mayhem it dishes out. Ultimately, Mohr’s film is a missed opportunity, though I am sure clips and GIFs of many of the gnarly death scenes will likely find their way to social media.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Famke Janssen, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Yayan Ruihan, Quinn Copeland, Sharlto Copley, Nicholas Crovetti, Cameron Crovetti, Andrew Koji

Director: Moritz Mohr
Written by: Tyler Burton Smith, Arend Remmers (screenplay); Arend Remmers, Moritz Mohr (story)
Based on the short film “Boy Kills World” written by Arend Remmers and Moritz Mohr
Release Date: April 26, 2024
Roadside Attractions

Action movies with short attention spans and graphic violence appeals to a particular demographic and Boy Kills World is the latest entrant into this very specific genre.

Bill Skarsgård definitely understood the assignment.

An admittedly clever concept where a deaf and mute man’s inner monologue is narrated for audiences…

But that narration, much like the movie, loses steam and the novelty of the concept the longer the movie goes.

Not for the squeamish. People get decimated in Boy Kills World.

Achieves a middle-school boys level of intellect. The violence, the rapid quick-cutting, the quips and presentation overstays its welcome BEFORE a twist extends the film another half hour or so.