Rob Munday

A few years ago, I chose to stop eating meat – for a variety of reasons – and while I have no desire to become a preachy vegetarian, it’s a decision I’ve never once regretted. Though not explicitly about meat consumption, Thirza Ingold’s charming yet faintly unsettling stop-motion short Kill Your Darlings has the potential to spark a moment of reflection about personal choices – and might just make you pause before reaching for your next bacon sandwich.

Following the story of a farmer and her affection for her adorable – yet undeniably edible – pigs, Kill Your Darlings is described as “a fable about the price of greed and short-sighted thinking.” At its heart, it’s a short about ideals. At first, the farmer’s life appears idyllic: a picturesque countryside setting, animals that shower her with affection, and a seemingly harmonious existence. But it doesn’t take long for her true dilemma to surface.

While the farmer’s conflict is highly specific, the broader message of Kill Your Darlings resonates – a reminder that things are rarely as perfect as they first seem. Yet despite the potential for multiple interpretations, this isn’t a film one would describe as narratively intricate. The storytelling remains simple and direct, perhaps reflecting Ingold’s more relaxed, instinctive approach to the animation – allowing the process to guide the narrative rather than adhering to a tightly scripted plan. As a result, it’s down to the film’s aesthetic to help it land its impact.

Ingood’s character design strikes a satisfying balance between the familiar and the strange.

Crafted from polymer clay and foam latex for the “real world” sequences – materials that proved challenging to work with – and needle felt for the moments above the clouds, Ingold’s puppets strike a balance between familiarity and unease. The character design is undeniably cute, yet edged with a hint of the grotesque. There’s an uncanny quality to the farmer and her animals; while Ingold obviously isn’t aiming for realism, they retain a tangible, hand-made presence that grounds them in reality, even as their proportions and expressions lean toward the cartoonish.

However, what truly heightens that unease in Kill Your Darlings is Ingold’s bold inclusion of real meat within the visuals. From the very first jarring moment – a close-up of one of those adorable piggies abruptly replaced by a full-screen flash of mortadella – the film gains an added layer of psychological complexity. Though not the first short to incorporate real meat into animation (Robin Jensen’s Farce offers another memorable example), here it is used with precision, serving as a visceral glimpse into the protagonist’s conflicted mind and the tension between affection and appetite.

Kill Your Darlings played a number of festivals on the 2023/24 circuit and was released online as a Vimeo Staff Pick in late July 2025.