The clue is in the title but love truly does hurt and it can tear you or someone else apart.
What starts out as a sweet relationship between two lost souls, takes a deadly turn when one of them is involved in a response to bullying with severe consequences.
Fast forward seven years later and we follow Wakaba, a now young woman who is having a getaway with friends at a cabin in the woods; what could go wrong?
One thing Love Will Tear Us Apart is quite refreshingly open to is the grief process, which is a sorely missed spot of many a horror film, as characters just seem to move on with no apparent mental scars from previous traumas.
Wakaba has a chance encounter a year later with a random man in Tokyo, who after less than 24 hours wants to propose to her, nothing concerning here at all…
At one point the film also had what felt like callbacks to Alexandre Aja’s High Tension, as the psychology of everything we have seen so far is unpacked at the results aren’t pretty, instead they’re pretty bloody.
Love is indeed illogical, imperfect and sometimes connections made even in tragic circumstances can never truly be broken.
Love Will Tear Us Apart is a fascinating character study which descends into a shocking bloodbath, but it’s drive to make it messy only makes it more vivid and appealing.
Love Will Tear Us Apart screens as part of Grimmfest 2023.
Bloody Flicks 