Boy Kills World

It might seem like we’ve seen it all before, whether in 1980s action flicks and Jackie Chan classics or Quentin Tarantino’s blood-spattered vistas in his two volumes of Kill Bill’s extravaganza. Yet, here we are with Moritz Mohr’s debut making us laugh at its quirky jokes, root for the eponymous Boy and his vicious vendetta, shed a tear in its touching emotional scenes and cover our eyes when body parts are being horrendously dismembered. It’s a hotch-potch of everything action thriller aficionados treasure in their favourite genre. 

Boy Kills World intensely relies on the clichés of cinema, but still uses them wisely. It’s a typical revenge-at-all-costs tale about a young boy (Bill Skarsgård) losing his family in a dystopian (and brutal, oh, how brutal) world. Consequently, he is trained by a mysterious master, who prepares him for the envisaged revenge. What makes our “Boy” a unique figure is he is deaf-mute: Skarsgård does not speak in this film, he can only work with his facial expressions. At the same time, Boy imagines his voice to sound like the narrator (Archer’s H Jon Benjamin) of his favourite arcade game. Benjamin becomes his “inner voice”, the two actors combining efforts to create one collective performance. It’s an experiment one can’t help but admire.

What makes Mohr’s dazzling spectacle stand out from other action-packed productions? It’s all connected to his inventive flair. Every sequence introduces fresh ideas, either through clever plot twists or innovative audiovisual techniques, such as the integration of the protagonist’s deafness into the film’s narrative rhythm. When Mohr received funding for his feature based on a short, his creativity was finally unleashed, paying tribute to the likes of Mortal Kombat‘s set pieces and echoing the high-speed choreography of Kingsman. His playful and dynamic approach to cinematography turns the camera into a playground.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were the last action heroes, then Skarsgård enters a canon of 21^st-century anti-heroes. He never fails to entertain his audience, always willing to play within the film’s genre mash-up and its varied rules. As Boy, sometimes he’s frightening, sometimes funny and sometimes just needs to blow off steam. Modern cinema not only deserves talents like Skarsgård, who defies typecasting, but also needs more of Mohr’s vision and zany humour. Our world seems to be a better place with it.

Jan Tracz

Boy Kills World is released nationwide on 26^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for Boy Kills World here: