Boy Kills World (2024) Movie Review

Spoiler Alert: This post may contain spoilers. Additionally, some images and text may include affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission or receive products if you make a purchase.

Plot Summary

Since Boy was a child, his focus has been revenge. Hilda Van Der Koy killed his mother and sister right in front of him and left him for dead. Luckily, a man known as Shaman raised, trained and prepped him for what needed to be done. Now, Boy has to get through Hilda’s family to end her tyranny and get justice.

Content Information

• Dialog: Cursing
• Violence: Gun Violence, Family Violence, Dismemberment, Blood, Torture, Notable Fight Scenes
• Sexual Content: None
• Miscellaneous: Depiction of Corpses, Body Horror, Drug Use, Vomiting, Smoking

Characters and Cast Members

Character’s Name	Actor’s Name
Boy	Bill Skarsgård
Hilda Van Der Koy	Famke Janssen
Young Boy	Nicholas Crovetti, Cameron Crovetti
Mina	Quinn Copeland
Melanie Van Der Koy	Michelle Dockery
Gideon Van Der Koy	Brett Gelman
June27	Jessica Rothe
Shaman	Yayan Ruhian

Character Description(s)

Boy

Trained since he was a child to be a killing machine, Boy is fueled by vengeance. Add in he is deaf and mute, with only the voice of a fighting game narrator in his head, and this makes him only distracted when Mina decides to haunt him.

• Bill Skarsgård is also known for their role in “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

Hilda

While at one time a revolutionary, Hilda is now a tyrant with an iron grip on her power. She maintains it through a yearly event known as “The Culling,” where she has her enemies publicly executed.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Knights of the Zodiac.”

Mina

Mina is Boy’s little sister, and when she was alive, she was his best friend. Now, she is a ghost that haunts him.

Melanie

Melanie is Hilda’s sister who handles the business, marketing, and propaganda aspect of the family business with her husband.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Good Behavior.”

Gideon

Gideon is Melanie and Hilda’s brother who handles the soldiers and making sure his sister’s will, even while she is held up in a bunker, is executed.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.”

June27

June 27 is a helmet-wearing soldier of Hilda, who is of notable fame amongst the soldiers in Hilda’s army.

• The actor is also known for their role in “All My Life.”

Shaman

Shaman is who trains Boy to get vengeance for his family and seems to keep Boy in a constant state of either pain or hallucination.

Review

Our Rating: Mixed (Divisive)

Good If You Like

• Bloody action movies
• Movies with no desire to be seen as serious

Check out our movies page for our latest movie reviews and recommendations.

Highlights

Brutal Action

From watching the young version of Boy train with the Shaman to the adult version, all in hand-to-hand combat, reminiscent of Beatrix Kiddo in “Kill Bill” to seeing him brutalize folks with guns, blades, and his bare hands, “Boy Kills World” is violent. Although it doesn’t have the sound needed to make you wince and grimace, for those who like action movies where blood splatters and people lose their limbs or get notable injuries, this will entertain you.

The Potential To Get Emotional Towards The End

Throughout the film, Boy has conversations with his little sister, Mina, and with him being the older brother and suffering so much in life, you can see her as the silver lining. I’d even say, he is more so avenging her than his mother, considering his mom might be a memory, but his little sister has damn near evolved into a part of his consciousness.

So, as we get towards the end of the movie, Mina’s presence becomes even stronger and is part of what keeps him alive and from being utterly consumed by revenge to the point he knows nothing else; that is what can get you emotional. She is there to remind him that while he has spent years prepping for revenge, that is not the sum of his life. He still needs to have fun, laugh, and enjoy a bowl of cereal. He can’t lose his humanity in pursuit of eliminating tyranny.

On The Fence

Campy At Times

When it comes to the Van Der Koy family, they aren’t written to be fearsome. They all are campy, and Melanie especially dances on that line of being so bad that they can be good. For with the way Michelle Dockery plays her, you want to laugh, but you also recognize 90% of her lines are corny. Then throw in Gideon, who seems to be the same character Brett Gelman usually plays, just with some form of power now, and you continually get actors who feel like they are hamming it up, sometimes a bit too much, but then the violence balances things out.

If You’re Into World Building, This Doesn’t Do Much Of That

In “Boy Kills World,” we’re told Hilda started a revolution; decades later, she became a villain. Now, who was the former big evil? What did they do to inspire a revolution? That isn’t gone into. Heck, even in terms of character development, Shaman, as for why Hilda felt so threatened by him, again, that isn’t gone into. You assume that he could be the revolutionary who was supposed to overthrow her, but in the movie, his only supportive relationship is shown with Boy, so that seems unlikely.

What “Boy Kills World” does instead of building up its world is create the perfect scenario for violence and let things play out. It does character development via you understanding someone’s motive, but it doesn’t push to make people three-dimensional. Who is Boy outside of his training and the means he has learned to be violent? You know he is someone’s big brother, and he honored that relationship, but what interest did he have before he was rendered deaf and mute? You have nothing.

Heck, in terms of Hilda and her family, who are they beyond revolutionaries who are now the same thing they fought against? We know Gideon and Melanie are creatives, with Gideon writing scripts and Melanie loving the business and marketing side of propaganda, but why is never answered.

Is this something that could cause frustration or issues? No. “Boy Kills World,” from its title to marketing, makes it clear this is about watching people get murdered. However, sometimes it sucks when all you get is the minimal expected, despite the film being capable of offering so much more.

Background Information

Film Length	1 Hour 55 Minutes
Date Released	April 26, 2024
Where To Watch	In Theaters
Director(s)	Moritz Mohr
Writer(s)	Tyler Burton Smith, Arend Remmers, Moritz Mohr
Based On Work By	Arend Remmers, Moritz Mohr
Genre(s)	Action, Adventure, Comedy, Thriller, Young Adult
Content Rating	Rated R