Panic Fest 2024 Boy Kills World Review- Hyper Violent Actioner Is Heavy On Violence And Lite On Commentary

What happens when Bill Skarsgård is given free rein to method act without being hampered by dialogue? When the more-is-more attitude of any number of Nic Cage’s recent performances is embraced by one of the most emotive actors currently working, you get an unexpected delight of violence, mayhem, and absurdity. Absolute, non-stop brilliant nonsense is the result if you are willing to buy into the conceit. Boy Kills World’s performance as part of Panic Fest 2024’s closing night is bonkers in all the best ways.

An action-packed chest thumper of a thriller features a deaf and mute killer who desperately wants to avenge his family’s death. In what should be the craziest scene of Boy Kills World, several of the state’s enemies get executed on live television by breakfast cereal mascots. Frosty Puffs cereal, run by the unscrupulous and wildly insecure Melanie Van Der Koy(Melanie Dockery), sponsors this grandiose and grotesque display of barbarity called The Culling. This nasty family also plays a pivotal role in the lost childhood of our angry orphan, who fondly remembers eating cereal before the Van Der Koys killed his family and destroyed his life.

There’s an over-the-top goofiness to Boy’s narration that is self-reflective in the way that teenage girls are while simultaneously being entirely derivative. But in a good way. There are probably plenty of people who won’t get it. They will lament that the voiceovers feel indulgent and needlessly outrageous and there isn’t enough cleverness in the film. Those aren’t incorrect claims, but in the same way that I could watch Cage have loud outbursts over seemingly nothing, going from zero to sixty within a single sentence, I could watch Boy Kills World’s captivating scenery.

The film superficially discusses the role of media in society, politics, and happiness but never goes too deep. Like idiocracy, this film strives to poke fun without drawing blood. We know Boy’s motivations because of his near-constant blathering, which only highlights how narcissistic most of us can be. The persistent gore and violence showcase this world’s(and potentially our current one’s)ability to distance itself from humanity. Victims don’t matter so much in that they were a means to an end and not people with feelings, families, or dreams of their own. Most people fall into three camps: consumer sheep, violent political dissidents, and power brokers. You either buy what they are selling, work against them, or do the selling.

As most are, Boy is a righteous, if aggressively single-minded, avenger. Through training montages and memories, we get a clear picture of who he is and what he lost. He’s a cartoon hero in a 2D world. Nothing is meant to be taken seriously. It’s a ludicrous place with ridiculous, terrible people.

The Van Der Koy’s are a buffoonish bunch of failing upward idiots. Melanie is so grossly worried about hanging onto power she will literally kill people for ratings. Her husband, Glen(Sharlto Copley), is a preening dullard who may have been popular with the masses, and her brother Gideon(Brett Gelman) is an artist who is so conflicted and frustrated by his circumstances he pours his heart and soul into ridiculous and potentially dangerous speeches for his family to rabble rouse with. The fact that this brain-dead and emotionally numb family sells sugary treats is reminiscent of Parks and Rec’s Sweetums, which systematically pumped saccharine into its citizens.

Make no mistake, the violence is excessive. Everything from the camera angles chaotic twisting and turning to the faceless, often limbless bodies flying and buckets of blood are intended to show a not-quite-realistic world in crisis. Most of the scenes feel as if they come directly from Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter with flying fists, kicks, and cries for ever more brutality. That is partly helped by Boy’s explanation that he based his narrative voice partly on those games he played as a kid.

There are some narrative back-half twists that feel overwritten and almost send Boy Kills World careening past the point of no return, but Skarsgård is a star, and for fans of hyper-violent action films like Argylle and The Kingsmen, there is plenty of fighting. I choose to believe the choices that were made that make this film look like something that belongs in this world were intentional. Maybe we all are products and consumers, and that bears exploring. To do it in a stylized world of digestive nightmares, ruthless families, and apathetic buyers who want to be spoonfed more makes it more palatable than accepting we all just do as we are told by the advertisers, politicians, and celebrities who rule media.

Boy Kills World is in theaters right now.