The Headless Lover (2011)

The Headless Lover (2011)
Directed by: Kim Lysgaard Andersen
Written by: Kim Lysgaard Andersen
Starring: Jorn Fauerschou, Maibritt Saerens, Michael Carore

The Headless Lover (2011)

Director: Kim Lysgaard Andersen

Writer: Kim Lysgaard Andersen

Starring: Maibritt Saerens, Michael Carore, Jorn Fauerschou

Reviewed by: Matt Wavish, official HCF critic

You gotta love short films; they pack so much in to such a small amount of time they are pretty much impossible to be dull. However, you will find some which go above and beyond what is expected and they actually turn out to be very very good indeed. Director Kim Lysgaard Andersen’s The Headless Lover is a perfect example of this, a relentless and beautifully presented horror comedy about how one mistake can cause you a whole heap of trouble.

The short film is part of an upcoming horror anthology called ‘The Book of Horror’; a collection of three short films which will all be made by Kim Lysgaard Andersen. On the strength of The Headless Lover, the first in the series, the next instalments will be incredible. The Headless Lover has gone around many festivals last year, and if you want to see how good it is we have the full length film embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

The plot follows Sascha (Saerens), a sexy “two timing bitch” (to quote the synopsis) who is married to a dodgy looking rich bloke who doesn’t come across as someone you’d want to mess with. With her relationship with her husband extremely distant, she has an affair with a singer who becomes far more trouble than she ever expected. We are introduced to Sascha and her lover Paolo (Carore) in the opening scene, they are in Paolo’s caravan having sex, and she orders Paolo to sing for her. It is quite hilarious as he begins singing while she springs into action and gets as much enjoyment out of the sex as she can. Without allowing poor Paolo to “finish”, she suddenly jumps off him and heads off, leaving him begging for her to come back because “he’s not finished!” This hilarious plea becomes a running joke, and I will explain in due course!

Back at home, Sascha’s rich husband William (a creepy Fauerschou) has fired the maid for lying, and the pair sit down to enjoy the former maid’s last meal, oysters. Watching William scoff them like there’s no tomorrow, and Sascha barely able to crack one open, it is clear their relationship is anything but perfect. William declares a rule he lives by, and the reason he felt in necessary to fire the maid: “if you lie, you go straight to Hell”. Or, in the case of the story here, Hell will find you. Sascha nervously tries to cover up the constant phone calls from Paolo who is still desperate for her to “finish what she started”, and next thing we know Sascha and William are heading off to William’s strip club. Low and behold Paolo is there singing, he eventually gets hold of Sascha back stage and once again begs her to finish what she started. Sascha eventually agrees, pulls her pants down and finally Paolo has his way with her. Things go wrong as William catches them: Sascha panics, cries rape and smashes poor Paolo in the face with the heel of her shoe. Eventually killing him, they bury him in the back garden, but because she lied, Paolo is brought back from the dead and hunts her down.

What follows is a hilarious, and often quite bloody series of events as Paolo, now a zombie, stumbles around the house bellowing “I am not finished!!!”, Sascha continues to batter him and kill him with any object she can find, and William continues to ponder over if indeed there was something going on between them. The film never loses its sense of humour with many comical scenes which will cause you to laugh out loud, and the constant, brutal attacks on Paolo become increasingly more violent as Sascha suddenly realises he just won’t die. The pacing here is inch perfect, the special effects are terrific, and the three main characters all give off a real charm and charisma. You cannot help it but you will find yourself siding with all of them at once. Sascha is very pleasing on the eye, and the constant bellowing of Paolo’s “I am not finished” never gets old, and with that the violence is gory, a bit slapstick, but very funny. There are even some superb background effects made to look almost like a Giallo film, especially when Sascha slices open Paolo’s throat. With blood spraying all over her, everything behind her goes black and rays of dark green and red shoot out from behind her. Proof that director Andersen has a ton of ideas up his sleeve.

The Headless Lover is a huge amount of fun, this is great stuff and I really can’t wait for the rest of the Book of Horror series now. A great achievement!

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To find out more about The Book of Horror you can visit the official Facebook page or head over to the official website