The Boy in the Very Red Pyjamas

The premise of Boy Kills World is both entirely familiar and also somewhat unique. You've seen "man goes on a murderous rampage of revenge" about a dozen times at this point right? What about "deaf/mute man raised by a forest shaman goes on a murderous rampage of revenge in a near future dystopia with a video game aesthetic"? Maybe not so much.

Well thats what's on the table here. Bill Skarsgard saw his family killed by Hilda Van Der Koy and has been living with "The Shaman" in the years since. The Shaman isn't big on affection, solely focusing on raising the boy to be a killing machine and given he is played by Yayan Ruhain of The Raid fame you know he is teaching the kid to be badass. Meanwhile, Hilda (Famke Janssen) and her family have been busy running the unnamed city as a consumerist dystopia with the highlight of the year being an event called "The Culling", where twelve enemies of the state are killed in a violent TV programme with mascots and family themed commercial sponsorship. When Boy (Skarsgard's character is never given a name) witnesses people being rounded up for the big event he decides it's time to begin his bloody quest for vengeance.

We are guided through the story by Boy's inner monologue and conversations he has with a vision of his dead sister but given he doesn't know what his own voice would sound like the lines are delivered by the smooth tones of the announcer from his favourite childhood arcade game. Said voice belongs to Harry Jon Benjamin in a choice that fits the tone perfectly but may be a little distracting to Bob's Burgers fans. The arcade game influence carries over to the aesthetic with the Van Der Koy soldiers dressed like they stepped out of a first person shooter, bright colours and over the top violence that's as cartoonish as it is visceral. Sam Rami is a producer and this is the second year in a row he has overseen a movie with some gnarly cheese-grater action. Director Moritz Mohr is making his feature film debut and he handles the action with aplomb, serving up stylised fight scenes that are inventive and bone crunching, although the constantly swooping and circling camera can be taxing.

It's just as well the action sections are good since, while there is humour, plot twists and a little message about the futility of revenge, Boy Kills World is really just a procession of escalating fight scenes. The revenge action thriller is a pretty crowded genre these days and this effort doesn't quite have enough in the tank to stand with the absolute best in class but it does have enough style and individuality to stand on its own.

7 finish him's out of 10.

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