It was a combination of the cool title, the good people in the cast (especially the star of It who was also going to be The Crow), and the revenge plot that attracted me to this movie, and I was happy Mark Kermode and other critics' reviews were positive, so I couldn't wait to see it, produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rise). Basically, a young child known only as Boy (twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) lives in a city with his mother (Rolanda Marais) and younger sister Mina (Quinn Copeland). Boy and Mina are best friends and often play arcade games together and draw illustrations of their future. The city is ruled by the Van Der Koy family, headed by the matriarch Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), with siblings Gideon (Brett Gelman) and Melanie (Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery), along with Melanie's husband Glen (District 9's Sharlto Copley). Once every year, twelve people are gathered from the city by Hilda to participate in The Culling, an event where all twelve are killed on live television. In preparation, Hilda gathers Boy, Mina, and their mother and shoots Mina and their mother. Boy is spared, but he is tortured, having his tongue cut out and his ears charred by a hot poker. He is left for dead in the wilderness but is found by a mysterious Shaman (The Raid's Yayan Ruhian, voiced by François Chau) who nurses him back to health. He constantly trains with the Shaman in hand combat, sword skills, strength, and coordination until he is fully grown, in the hope of getting revenge against the Van Der Koys. Being mute and deaf, Boy (Bill Skarsgård) has forgotten the sound of his own voice, and imagines his inner monologue (H. Jon Benjamin) to be the voice from his favourite video game with Mina, Super Dragon Punch Force 3. Over the years, he has been constantly hallucinating Mina being by his side and speaking to him. While heading into the city to sell flowers, Boy sees Glen and Gideon arrive to round up the victims for that year's Culling. A woman (Frances Sholto-Douglas) in the crowd heckles Glen, he threatens to shoot her and accidentally shoots a random civilian. This causes a large fight with Boy watching, during which the Van Der Koy's enforcer, June 27 (Happy Death Day's Jessica Rothe), massacres many people, leaving only six alive who are captured by Gideon. Deciding to follow them, Boy hides in the boot of Gideon's car. Boy ends up at a warehouse and lip reads a conversation between Glen, Gideon, and Melanie. Then he is attacked by Glen and several of his men as Gideon leaves with Melanie. Boy brutally kills the men and befriends a captive named Basho (Bullet Train's Andrew Koji). Basho helps Boy interrogate Glen for information; he reveals that Hilda hosts a party before The Culling every year. Glen offers to help them, saying he wants to escape the family, but Basho accidentally crushes his head, dropping a bench press he is holding onto it. Basho takes Boy to meet the Resistance but discovers that everybody has been killed by the Van Der Koys. The only member remaining is Benny (It Chapter Two's Isaiah Mustafa), who Boy finds it difficult to lipread because of his thick beard. Boy, Basho, and Benny sneak into the manor, with Boy disguising himself as a member of catering. He makes his way into Hilda's dining room, where he decapitates her, only to realise she is a decoy, and the dinner is a rehearsal. Gideon orders June 27 to fight Boy, he nearly beats her but has a moment of weakness and is knocked out. Boy is tied up and Gideon gets ready to torture him, but he instead reveals that he wishes to help him. Gideon explains Hilda created The Culling to protect herself from the Shaman and has been living in a bunker for years; all the criminals have been killed years ago and many innocent people have been massacred during the annual Culling. Melanie takes Boy to The Culling, where there are several costumed performers, including one dressed as the pirate from his favourite childhood breakfast cereal. Hilda unexpectedly makes an appearance but ignores the script provided. She is forced off the stage by Melanie after she mistakenly spots the Shaman and nearly fires a gun. The Culling begins as Boy uses a scalpel given to him by Gideon in secret to free himself, reuniting with Basho and Benny who have sneaked in. Melanie furiously confronts Gideon in the control room and points a gun at his back. After killing most of the executioners, Boy is almost shot by Melanie, but Benny jumps in front of him, being shot and killed instead. Melanie shoots Basho but is knocked out by Boy. He waits for her to wake up before impaling her face with the camera dolly broadcasting live. Boy and a mortally wounded Basho go through the hallways leading to Hilda's bunker. Boy is so focused on killing the guards that he misses Basho dying from his wounds. Boy finds Gideon, who was shot by Melanie; he gives him a key card to the elevator down to the bunker. The hallucination of Mina begs Boy not to kill Gideon, but Boy does not listen and kills him, causing the hallucination to disappear. In the elevator, Hilda speaks to Boy through a camera/microphone, asking if what he's doing is worth it. When he shows Hilda a drawing drawn by Mina, she becomes horrified and orders the guards outside to stand down. June 27 takes Boy to Hilda in a large room, which has paintings of the Van Der Koy, which include him and Mina. It is revealed that Boy is Hilda's son and that the Shaman's entire family were killed in The Culling. Boy actively participated in killing dissidents, but he refused to shoot the Shaman which led to his escape. This incident led to Boy running away into the woods, he was found by the Shaman, who almost killed him, but instead muted and deafened him. Using LSD and psychological torture, the Shaman warped Boy's mind, making him believe that Hilda killed his family as he trained him to become a weapon. Boy has actually been murdering his real family while June 27 is revealed to be Mina, who is alive and has grown up. In shock, Boy cannot give Hilda any signs of affection and she orders June 27/Mina to kill him. But June 27 instead stabs Hilda in the head with one of her hatchets. Reuniting with his sister, Boy and June 27 make their way out of the bunker, violently killing the remaining guards who threaten them. The two enter the elevator but it suddenly descends, where they are met by the Shaman. He says he is proud of Boy, but orders him to kill June 27 as the last Van Der Koy. The three have a lengthy and brutal fight, where the Shaman and Boy are evenly matched, but the Shaman repeatedly gets the upper hand, nearly crushing June 27's head and slicing open Boy's forearms, wrists, and legs with his sharpened necklace. Despite his wounds, Boy manages to force the necklace back into the Shaman's neck, slitting his throat and killing him. Boy and June 27, both bleeding heavily, exit the bunker as they make their way to their new future. A flashback shows the two playing the arcade game, where the voice announces "Player 2 Has Entered the Game". Also starring Zainab Azizi as Melanie's Executive, and Ashley Dowds as Boy's Imaginary Father. Skarsgård's performance is all in his facial expressions and he is good, Copley, Dockery, and Gelman are all equally devious villains, Koji and Janssen are good support, Rothe is fine, Ruhian is suitably menacing, and I loved the inner voice by Benjamin. A mission of revenge by a martial artist against a criminal dynasty is an engaging story filled with mayhem, the fast-paced pace and style are well executed, and the over-the-top comic gore and violence are fantastic, an entertaining action comedy thriller. Very good!
Review of Boy Kills World
