‘Boy Kills World’ Movie Review (TIFF 2023)

Image credit: Courtesy of TIFF

Written by: Gracie Lowes

Bloody, gory, comedic and action-packed… These are four words that best capture the story of Moritz Mohr’s action thriller feature-film debut, ‘Boy Kills World’.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen) rules the people alongside her corrupt and violence-driven family.

To keep her power and dynasty from fading, a yearly event known as the culling takes place. The televised event features 12 townspeople who are to be publicly killed due to being seen as a threat to the “peace” that Hilda Van Der Koy has created in society.

But with a drive for revenge, Boy (Bill Skarsgård) has been training for years with the enigmatic shaman (Yayan Ruhian) with one goal… to kill Hilda Van Der Koy and avenge his mother and sister who were killed by her in a past year culling.

On the eve of this year’s annual culling, after watching an entire town be massacred by authorities for trying to fight against the event, Boy decides to start his journey earlier than the shaman had planned, to finally take down Hilda.

Boy departs on his lifelong mission, leaving a long trail of blood and bodies behind him, forming an unlikely team with people along the way, and even finding out dark secrets about himself and his past.

Alongside Bill Skarsgård, Yayan Ruhian and Famke Janssen this cast also includes names such as Jessica Rothe, Andrew Koji, Isaiah Mustafa, Brett Gelman, and Sharlto Copley.

Obviously, with this being an action-based film, it’s no surprise that the story includes intense fight scenes and blood. But I have to applaud the stunt coordinators and director because the fight sequences as a whole were so beautifully shot and choreographed.

A shot that really stood out to me and also had the audience hooked was a close-up shot of Skarsgård before he took on a group of guards, as the fight began the shot panned back from his face and turned into a following shot filmed by a drone.

This tactic made viewers feel as though they were in the fight with Skarsgård, from the drone going through the guard’s legs and panning to the kicks landing right after, to the drone following Skarsgård’s punches until his fist “hit” his opponent. The cinematography and directions of these fight scenes were stunning.

Apart from the fight scenes, Skarsgård gave an amazing performance throughout the film. Due to his character being deaf Skarsgård acted the entire movie without a single line (minus his voiceovers that happen in his head). Despite this, he was able to convey deep and powerful emotions with only his face.

This may seem like an easy task for an actor to do but to do it and be able to keep the audience’s attention is another thing. After the film, director Moritz Mohr came out to talk to the crowd and he described Skarsgård as “a modern Charlie Chaplin” in the movie and I couldn’t agree more.

Despite his talent in portraying emotions silently as well as his killer stunts, I wasn’t sold on his voiceover.

I’m not sure what it was specifically whether it’s the fact that he sounded childish and unmatching to his character in a way or if it’s the fact that I’m used to hearing him use his Pennywise voice in the ‘IT’ movies. But something about his character’s voiceover/ inner monologue took away from the film for me.

This film lives up to the action thriller genre with its high-paced fights and probably the most blood and gore I’ve seen in a movie to date.

Overall, I’d give ‘Boy Kills World’ a 3 out of 5 stars. It was gripping and well shot, but at certain times it felt as though the plot was lost to include longer fight scenes.

If you enjoyed ‘Karate Kid’, ‘Snake Eyes’ and ‘The Hunger Games’, I recommend checking out ‘Boy Kills World’.