KILL YOUR LOVER - Mark Reviews Movies

Kill Your Lover, Dark Sky Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 6, 2024

At a certain point, a metaphor stops being one and just becomes the story. That happens early into Kill Your Lover, which looks at a toxic romantic relationship as an inexplicable disease that turns its carrier into a kind of monster and inflicts nothing but pain on everyone else. Writers/directors Alix Austin and Keir Siewert aren't exactly dealing with subtext here.

That's fine, in theory, except that the movie clearly thinks it's working on that level. For one thing, we spend an inordinate amount of time in the movie's hasty 77 minutes (including some admirably generous credits that highlight the major members of the crew) being shown how this relationship started and began to reveal itself as something terrible. The tale of how awful and miserable this couple is together and, when they're together, individually is right there in front of us.

As soon as it's revealed that Axel (Shane Quigley Murphy) has developed some kind of unexplained medical condition that makes him violent and ooze some sort of literal toxic goo, both the narrative of this couple and the relationship metaphor become redundant. Once Axel and his soon-to-be ex Dakota (Paige Gilmour) have out their issues in a physical brawl, the movie somehow transcends the concept of redundancy into the realm of being pointless.

It's strange, too, because each storytelling thread more or less works on its own. We first meet Dakota talking to her best friend and former roommate Rose (May Kelly) about how she's going to finally break up with Axel. Things have been bad between the couple for a while. He's controlling, insecure, and passive-aggressive in ways he doesn't even seem to recognize, because it's just who he is. She recognized all of this but stuck with him out of affection and for monetary reasons, and yes, maybe Dakota let the relationship get too far along because of unexpected love and financial uncertainty. Now, though, she wants and needs the thing to end.

When Axel returns to the couple's shared apartment from work, he overhears the end of that conversation and realizes what's about to happen. His actions confirm what we already suspect of him, as he refuses to confront reality, doesn't talk to Dakota directly, and, instead, attempts to have sex with her as some kind of tactic. Some flashbacks unfold from there, showing how the two were once happy and infatuated with each other, having vigorous sex and moments of intimacy that broke down Dakota's skepticism about romance.

After all, she was once part of a rock that broke up, leaving her with no real employment and a hard-living lifestyle that didn't accommodate something like settling down with one partner. There's a sweet sincerity to that, just as there's a more sinister element to the little ways Axel starts showing his true colors as the flashbacks move forward in time. It's all grounded in emotional and psychological reality, which definitely can't be said of where the present-tense story goes.

On its own, that part of the tale is intriguing, too. What has yet to be mentioned here is that Axel comes home from work ill. He's vomiting, and when he undresses, inky black veins protrude from the skin of his back. While holding Dakota's wrists and sides, Axel burns her flesh by way of a strange substance excreting from his own.

The horror side of this story works to an extent, as well, since we know the kind of guy Axel is—stubborn and inconsiderate and determined to stay with, as well as physically close to, Dakota despite her feelings for him. He refuses to go to hospital as a result, even though his life is probably in jeopardy and he knows he can hurt his girlfriend. It's unsettling watching this unfold, especially when others become involved in what he sees as a battle of wits to stay in the apartment, just as it becomes mostly silly watching Dakota look for and ignore ways of getting out of the apartment and away from Axel until it becomes too late.

If we're just talking about a disastrous romance and delayed break-up, some of the drama here makes sense. As soon as Axel becomes an obvious threat beyond his man-child attitude and impulses, though, most of it becomes a bit too difficult to believe. That's the major problem—apart from how both of the key elements of this story are basically and noticeably doing the same thing—with the movie. The split between the horror tale and the relationship drama is simply too severe in terms of the stakes and the tone. One is over-the-top, particularly during the on-the-nose climax, and the other is grounded in recognizable things.

Austin and Siewert seem to think these two stories are complementary, but as Kill Your Lover escalates, it becomes clear they're battling each other in unconvincing ways. Obviously, that's not in terms of what the movie wants to say, because it's clunky and blunt in overtly saying that, but it definitely is the case in how the movie goes about making that point.

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