A young boy made death, dumb and an orphan by a totalitarian state dedicates his whole life training with a mysterious shaman to become a weapon of revenge. 

“Boy” (played by twins Nicholas and Cameron Crovetti and later Bill Skarsgard) only has some fleeting memories of his mother and sister before they were executed in an annual event called “The Culling”. Without a voice of his own he decides that his internal monologue will be the voice of an arcade game he remembers playing with his sister. This gives us one of the greatest pleasures of the film, an internal monologue voiceover from H. Jon Benjamin who was the voice of politically incorrect super spy Benjamin Archer in the hilarious animated show Archer for 144 episodes. This internal monologue along with the fact that Boy keeps visualising and speaking to his dead sister really sets the irreverent tone of the film. A tongue in cheek action romp through what is essentially a series of video game levels where the difficulty gets harder. 

Those levels include the training montage sequences with the Shaman (Yayan Ruhian) where Boy is put through his paces in a multitude of ways. Before the game proper where Boy faces off against various members of the evil Van Der Koy dynasty who rule this dystopia. The face of the organisation is played with glee by Sharlto Copley who seems to have found his oeuvre as an impact cameo in films that require an amoral fast talking charmer. The scriptwriter for the totalitarian state is played with comedic disdain by Brett Gelman who is so fed up with his family he seems to like to bring an element of chaos to everything for kicks. The marketing department is brought to us by Michelle Dockery who is channelling her no nonsense character from The Gentlemen rather than her Downton Abbey persona. Whilst Famke Janssen delivers a deranged performance as the head of the family. 

There are a multitude of pop culture references. Boy wears a gilet reminiscent of Back To The Future, a credits sequence has a visual cue that references Akira whilst the entire movie continually references the arcade beat em up genre. There are also many bonkers moments that just seem like the creators wanted to have fun and throw in crazy comic stylings. One Van Der Koy family member (Jessica Rothe) wears a motorcycle helmet whose visor has words appear on it (also reminding me of the game Streets of Rage) whilst another sequence has breakfast cereal characters fighting. 

Fight sequences are brutal and well choreographed. It is fantastic to see Yayan Ruhian from The Raid films get more screen time to show what he is capable of. And whilst some moments are fairly graphic the sense of humour still remains as well. 

In general, the film throws everything at you constantly. And the possibility that this might just be the crazy imaginations of a damaged boy seems to hold throughout the course of the movie. 

Boy Kills World is unashamedly an action genre movie whose influences are squarely from the video game and comic book arena. It does not feel surprising that one of the screenwriters, Tyler Burton Smith has three video game credits on his writing resume (Sleeping Dogs, Quantum Break and Alan Wake 2). Or that “The Culling” is the name of a notorious battle royale computer game whose sequel had one of the most disastrous launches of all time. Debut director Morita Mohr keeps the sensory overload under control and delivers a hectic but entertaining watch. 

This is not high art and it definitely is not for most people. But if you want a genre fighting movie with ultra violence, an irreverent sense of humour and allusions to video games and comics then you will have fun with this one. Hang around for post credits scenes as well.