IN CINEMAS 26 APRIL
Bill Skarsgård (It, Barbarian), stars as Boy, the silent warrior who’s so shredded, he makes the Iron Claw cast look like couch potatoes. He’s going to war with Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), the lunatic leader who le him orphaned, deafened and voiceless, and her henchmen, played by Sharlto Copley and Bre Gellman.
The cartoony action movie takes inspiration from comic books, anime, action movies and video games, says director Moritz Mohr. I love old kung-fu movies. I love Asian cinema. I play a lot of video games and I read a lot of manga. Anime is a big influence,” he tells Total Film. But also, s **** y lile Saturday morning cartoons I loved growing up. I knew I wanted to make a revenge movie with a deaf protagonist, but that was literally the one constant.”
FAMKE JANSSEN
The film was shot on location in Cape Town. Producer Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead) says the outrageously over-the-top film might not have been made if not for the involvement of SA producers Simon Swartz and Wayne Fitzjohn. They really supported the movie financially, and they saw [director] Moritz’s vision for what it was.”
Boy Kills World was produced by SA holding company Talent, and one of their companies, Talent Digital Art, created a videogame inspired by the film. Available on Steam, Super Dragon Punch Force is a free fighting game.
Bill, who played Pennywise in the It films, wasn’t the filmmaker’s initial choice for the part of Boy, says Moritz, who’d imagined someone younger – and shorter.
He’s almost two metres tall, and that’s not very boyish. But at the same time, he’s literally perfect for this. He has this childlike innocence. And he can fight.”