The Big Picture

Kill Your Lover
is a clever depiction of toxic relationships that leaves a lasting mark.
The film boasts strong independent horror effects that bring a gnarly concept to life.
It provides a honest portrayal of an unhealthy breakup with a decent amount of fearlessness.

A film like Kill Your Lover highlights what’s so special about the horror genre. You’ve seen movies about toxic relationships before, probably with Hollywoodized happy endings or experiences grounded by the confines of societal perception. Alix Austin and Keir Siewert’s body horror breakup flick is free from these restrictive boundaries, pushing past soapy operatics into the frightening side of failing relationships. Kill Your Lovers embraces the illustrative ick of “toxic relationships” as an acidic infection, cleverly exposing physical repulsiveness via a genre that doesn’t shy away from how painful and terrifying everyday shared experiences can become.

Kill Your Lover (2023) Release Date October 12, 2023 Director Alix Austin , Keir Siewert Cast Paige Gilmor , Shane Quigley Murphy , May Kelly , Joshua Whincup , Chloe Wigmore , Eva-Marie Kung , Rachael James , Joanna Lusua Runtime 77 Minutes Writers Alix Austin , Keir Siewert Expand

What Is ‘Kill Your Lover’ About?

Kill Your Lover does well to drip information like an IV, opening on Dakota’s final decision before pulling the curtain back on her and Axel’s intertwined timeline. Austin and Siewert’s screenplay reveals how easily Axel and Dakota went from marathon orgasm sessions to a Cronenbergian anti-rom-com. Themes posterize the signs we ignore, the imperfections we deal with, or the exceptions we rationalize out of fear of losing a “safe” partnership. The Stockholm Syndrome of ignoring red flags because it’s better than being alone, only delaying and worsening the inevitable. Axel is the antagonist of Kill Your Lover — his abusive and manipulative actions are inexcusable — but the film does right to acknowledge Dakota’s insecurities, which kept her feeding Axel’s fantasy. In a horrific film about entrapment and one-sided relationships, clouds of repugnance break to offer thoughtful commentaries that complicate blame, attempting to honor the eternal messiness of emotional imperfections.

As for the grotesque and gory bits, Kill Your Lover is an accomplished low-budget affair. Axel’s tar-black veinage can look like splattered on paint or marker traces, like someone just started a cosmetic “Early Transformation Venom” tutorial, but surprisingly doesn’t lessen the mood. The sound design sizzles skin like a flattop steak, while the grossness of sticky fluids pulls webby strands when hands lift to reveal raw and bloody lesions. Austin and Siewert amplify the agony inflicted by Axel’s affliction, emphasizing its ability to spread like a virus. Hurt people hurt people, and Kill Your Lover goes for broke when bringing that mantra to screen. The film doesn’t waste its horror influences, especially during the few ultra-violent snippets where Valentine’s Doom imagery and exposed organs sell merciless fates.

‘Kill Your Lover’ Benefits From Great Performances
Image via Dark Sky Films

Paige Gilmour and Shane Quigley-Murphy provoke intensity throughout the two-person show. They carry Kill Your Lover from start to finish, mostly bickering and resenting the other. Quigley-Murphy understands and postures his place as an imposing threat to Gilmour’s former punk chick now on a leash. Axel is played with a sinister sternness, but Quigley-Murphy finds little peaks of tender helplessness as he begs to extend their charade, requesting the opportunity to mend what cannot be repaired. Dakota is just as afraid for a multitude of reasons, which Gilmour wrestles with in a performance that boasts exterior courage but swallows internal strife. Their fights are devastating, flashbacks genuinely lovely, and chemistry both compassionate and abhorrent, depending on what the scene demands.

I was ready for Kill Your Lover to be a better concept than execution, but that’s not true. Its flaws are apparent, from a forced feature duration to inevitable conclusions, but there’s nothing detrimental enough to ruin an otherwise impressive original horror creation. At under 80 minutes, Austin and Siewert understand how long audiences might be willing to watch a freakshow breakup with plain-as-day symbolism. In that time, Axel and Dakota convey the intricacies of an entire lived-through relationship that storytelling only catches for an hour or so upon its destruction. What endures is the authenticity behind Axel’s and Dakota’s behaviors, the motivations and consequences underneath layers of dangerous goop. For all its fantastical traits, Kill Your Lover is an achingly real love story. Come for the smell of toasted appendages, but stay for an openly wounded take on an experience we all probably know too well.

REVIEW Kill Your Lover (2023) Kill Your Lover is a well-acted and fiendishly conceptualized breakup tale that’s such an ingenious representation of toxic relationships and the hurt they can cause all parties involved.ProsThere?s a practical effect towards the end that rules.The blending of romance and the horror genre prove why they work so well together, redefining what happy endings look like.Strong lead performances keep the momentum going. ConsSome of the dialogue can feel like it?s trying to pad the running time.It?s a short-and-sweet concept, which might lose viewers over the duration.It meets expectations of where you probably assume the story will go.

Kill Your Lover is now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

WATCH ON VOD