Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Yayan Ruhian, Quinn Copeland, Sharlto Copley, Famke Janssen. Voice: H Jon Benjamin
Runtime: 111 mins. Reviewed in May 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A fever dream action film that follows Boy, a deaf person with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, he is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.
It is probably best to give an alert immediately. This is an action fantasy but at times it is a wallow in what a Clockwork Orange calls ‘a bit of the ultra-violence’, which can best be defined as excessive or even over the top levels of brutality – Alex and his droogs would certainly enjoy it. This is a highly macho show with not much female interest until the finale, but the filmmakers seem to have a younger audience in mind.
Throughout the film, with its totalitarian futuristic city, its purge, this time called ‘The Culling’, with its initial reminders of The Hunger Games, and, in the latter part, a television musical special parallel with the gladiatorial combats of The Hunger Games, there are constant reminders of graphic novels. There are panels of cartoon action and the dialogue in the bubble of the cartoon panel, which means, of course, that it is not meant to be taken as realistic in any way. It is a fantasy.
Then, the final credits are exactly that, a whole range of cartoon characters and action, of graphic novel comic panels, the instant action, the cartoon-style dialogue, the stylised impact.
The overall plot is interesting, an explanation of the domination of the leader, Hilda Van Der Koy (Janssen) the ruthlessness of The Culling, the execution of a nice family, the survival of the boy, his being trained by a shaman in the jungle, lots of episodes of martial arts, combat, motivation to have his revenge on Van Der Koy. The boy is deaf but there is an inner gruffly aggressive voice, and regular appearances of his executed little sister, a kind of anama figure trying to control his passionately aggressive animus.
In fact, the action gets quickly into the attack, and here is the wallow in the ultraviolence, combats, fights, deaths galore. There are also some nasty characters, Sharlto Copley as Glen Van Der Koy, a clownish spokesman on behalf of the regime, violently ruthless, but then we see his even more ruthless wife, in control of the state, Melanie Van Der Koy (Dockery a long way from Downton Abbey). But, the boy finds two allies who are able to join him in the combats, rescue him when captured, lead to the final confrontation.
And, it takes place in the staging of a television special, with its song and dance routines, vast sets, studio audience (definitely reminding us of The Hunger Games) but the victims of the culling on stage are hunted and killed ruthlessly. However, when the boy and his associates go into action, the villains are hunted down and killed even more ruthlessly.
Perhaps a word that needs to be introduced into reviews of this kind of action show is slaughter. However, interest is certainly raised when there is quite an unexpected and dramatic twist at the end. The office of classification has given Boy Kills World an MA certificate, and references blood and gore.
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