Bill Skarsgård – one of eight Skarsgård siblings, six of whom work as actors – has hitherto carved out a bit of a niche as the best one to hire when you need a Skarsgård with a bit of a creepy vibe. He’s played a possibly dangerous stranger (Barbarian), a vampire (Hemlock Grove), delivered an unforgettably nasty Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the recent IT, and is about to star as the titular character in The Crow reboot. In Boy Kills World, however, he proves there’s another string to his bow: bona fide action star.
Rippling with muscles, Skarsgård plays Boy, one of those “I am an instrument shaped for a single purpose” types that thrive in the action genre. The single purpose is a time-honoured one: revenge. In this case it is against Famke Janssen’s Hilda van der Koy, the head of a wealthy ruling family in a totalitarian state which subjects its population to an annual “culling”, during which supposed dissidents and traitors are executed. Having lost loved ones to one of these state-mandated execution sprees, Boy is now out to exact a bit of eye-for-an-eye and, as the title of the movie implies, anyone who presents an obstacle to said quest will be treated as a legitimate target and summarily kersplatted.
Skarsgård is a treat in the role; the character is deaf and mute, so his performance approaches something of a lethal Buster Keaton (though we do hear Boy’s thoughts as voiceover throughout). Unfortunately, you will often find yourself hoping the film can match his level. It’s nearly there, but the blend of Deadpool-esque comic violence with Hunger Game-style worldbuilding and character archetypes borrowed from everything from anime to Hong Kong action movies to video games, never quite manages to step out of the shadow of its various influences.
The plot is a bit overworked too, with a few too many flashbacks and revelations; all we really want from this kind of midnight movie is fun characters, a snappy runtime and as many lethal set pieces as possible. It’s easy to imagine a leaner edit that addresses some of this; it just needs someone prepared to be as brutal as Boy is when it comes to taking out anything standing in the way.
• Boy Kills World is in UK cinemas from 26 April, and in Australian cinemas from 2 May.
