There has never been a greater time to be a lover of video games and cinema because we’re finally living in a reality where video game-to-screen adaptations are not just okay, at best, they’re bloody brilliant, and bloody is a word synonymous with the latest contender, Boy Kills World.
If you’ve been living under a rock or just focus more on the chilling than Netflix, then you might not be aware of just how far video game adaptations have come over the last while. From Fallout to The Last of Us and even The Super Mario Bros. Movie, our game-loving eyeballs have been having the time of their lives.
Boy Kills World is a movie that wants to enter this ring and stand among the greats and isn’t afraid to fight tooth and nail to do so – and for the most part, it succeeds. However, unlike its fellow success stories, Boy Kills World isn’t based on a video game; instead, it turns the tables by having a video game based on it.
The movie stars Bill Skarsgård as a deaf and mute man called Boy who has been training his entire life for only one thing: to get his revenge by killing the woman he believes brutally murdered his whole family.
Viewers will follow him on this laser-focused quest for vengeance. Overall, it feels more like a video game than a movie, with direct references to video games and even down to Boy’s inner voice, which narrates his thoughts for viewers, being taken from Boy’s favourite childhood arcade game.
It’s a very meta experience that might feel unfamiliar to those who don’t play games frequently. Still, as a gamer, it just clicked for me. It also helps that the narrator is none other than the voice behind two of my favourite animated characters, Bob from Bob’s Burgers and Sterling Archer from Archer.
In terms of its structure, Boy Kills World feels most like a video game. Essentially, everything can be broken down into levels, and the film follows Boy, going from scene to scene, killing anyone who stands in his way until he reaches the final boss.
Now, Boy Kills World is not Oscar material by any stretch. Still, if you’re looking for some mindless entertainment that never takes itself too seriously and has video game-level dialogue, humour and violence woven into its DNA, the movie will more than hit the spot.
