Dead Northern 2024 Festival Review – Kill Your Lover

Directing duo Alix Austin and Keir Siewert deliver a gnarly, grotesque, and emotionally raw feat of tainted love, where body horror and a cerebral narrativisation collide together to create the must-see 'Kill Your Lover'. 

Strained couple Axel (Shane Quigley Murphy) and Dakota (Paige Gilmour) have long lost the passion that oozed from their early days together; with Dakota now desperate to break free and put an end to her partner's controlling hold. However, whilst on the cusp of delivering him the bad news, Axel falls ill with a monstrous infection, one that spews poison, splinters skin and turns its host into a corrosive mess — and worst of all…it's contagious. 

From the initial setup right up until the credits begin to roll, the entire film is slick with an uncomfortable sense of intimacy. Intimate through its nature of chronicling a toxic relationship. Intimate through its portrayal of up close and personal graphic body horror, and intimate in how it feels as if we have been positioned to voyeuristically gaze like a fly on the wall as Dakota and Axel experience the terrifying motions of their damning monstrosity.

The private, immediate view the audience experiences feels disturbed, as if we are that of a prying eye. It is this precise dark, troubling anxiety that makes Kill Your Lover's stirring approach so effective. As much as the film is a splattery gore fest, Austin and Siewert manage to penetrate the layers of fleshy horror and create a tone that is ripe with metaphors into destructive, venomous kinship and feeling inescapable dread at the hands of someone you once used to unconditionally love. 

The film's continuous lashings of affective energy also transfers itself into the sophisticated aesthetic that manages to balance obscure bloodiness whilst not faltering to unwarranted butchery — which for a film of such calibre would take away from the complex emotive aura. For instance, as the film escalates to the point of sheer horror-filled pandemonium as the treacherous infection spreads, an array of brilliant effects come to fruition. The makeup and design is gruesome, ghastly and macabre in the most unique way possible. The gravity of the fearsome visuals is made all the more nightmarish at the hands of the crafty and powerful performances from leads Gilmour and Quigley Murphy, both of whom excel at portraying depthful, intricate and complicated characters. 

Kill Your Lover is a standout feature that speaks to the creator's exhilarating storytelling talents. From Austin's incredible short horror 'Sucker' (2022), to Siewert and Austin's team effort on the anthological entry 'It's Inside' in Isolation (2021), it is a sure thing that this duo is one to watch. 

Catch the film Saturday 28th September at the 2024 festival, tickets and details here.