The Big Picture

Boy Kills World is a wild and crazy mashup of different film genres and influences, drawing from the director’s love of movies and his experiences working in a video store. While the movie is primarily a revenge story filled with action and comedy, it also explores the theme of family, with both the protagonist and antagonists being driven by their familial connections. The film features a star-studded cast, including Bill Skarsgård, Andrew Koji, Jessica Rothe, Famke Janssen, Isaiah Mustafa, and more, but no release date or trailer has been announced yet.

From the moment it was announced, Moritz Mohr’s (Akumi) Boy Kills World sounded like a fever dream. With names like Bill Skarsgård (It) and Andrew Koji (Warrior) among some of the first to be attached, the dream began to bleed into more of a reality with the leading cast all coming into place. Recently celebrating its worldwide debut at the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Midnight Madness (a place where other quirky titles like Dicks: The Musical has also taken center stage for the first time), Mohr’s bloody and brutal vision is now a full-blown feature-film, with a theatrical release date expected to be announced any day now. But, how does one shape a story like Boy Kills World? Where is inspiration pulled for a movie that centers around a deaf-mute boy who, after his family is murdered, retreats to the jungle to become a lean-mean killing machine to exact revenge on the killers? In an interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Mohr sat down along with producers Simon Swart and Zainab Azizi to talk about where this The Who’s Tommy and The Punisher mashup came from.

According to Swart, “[Boy Kills World is] a wild and crazy mashup of every film genre and movie that Moritz grew up loving. It comes from every corner of his mind, and he somehow integrated elements from all those great movies. He has that classic filmmaker story of having worked in a video store when he was younger and just being an avid cinephile.” More specifically, Swart says that Moritz’s projects, and this one in particular, contain, “influences of anime, of the great master action movies, the best comic book movies you’ve seen… this movie is basically a revenge movie, but it’s fun.”

Chiming in to share his perspective on his feature-length directorial debut, Mohr adds, “It’s also about family.” Although the film has been touted as a high-octane, bloodbath story about vengeance (with a healthy side of comedy), it’s also easy to see where the director is coming from with a main underlying theme centered around family. Not only is the boy’s entire family wiped from existence, but he then makes a new one deep in the jungle. And, the people behind the murders? Also, a family. “It’s about family and how families can be a little messed up,” Swart says, “It is an exploration of the path that you go on for revenge, but it’s also about being manipulated by other people. There is kind of a deep message in there buried beneath the mayhem, the wild and crazy action, and the comedy.”

Image via Raimi Productions

Who Else is in Boy Kills World?
Along with It, Barbarian, and John Wick: Chapter 4 star Skarsgård and Warrior’s Koji, the film also boasts a call sheet that includes Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Yayan Ruhian (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Famke Janssen (The Faculty), Isaiah Mustafa (It Chapter Two), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Sharlto Copley (Elysium), and Quinn Copley.

As of right now, no cinematic release date has been set for Boy Kills World nor has a trailer been released.