Kill for Me, Kill for You

Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel Strangers on a Train and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 movie by the same name both represent significant influences for Steve Cavanagh’s Kill for Me, Kill for You. Highsmith’s novel follows two men, Guy Haines and Charles Bruno, who meet briefly on a train. When Guy complains about his unfaithful wife, Miriam, Bruno offers to murder her in exchange for Guy killing Bruno’s father. Bruno insists that, because each man is unknown to his victim, police will be unable to connect them to the crimes, thus ensuring a clean escape—the perfect murders. Although Guy rejects Bruno’s offer, Bruno kills Miriam while Guy is out of the country. Terrified that Bruno will report him to police if he doesn’t hold up his end of their deal, Guy reluctantly kills Bruno’s father, and is consumed with guilt. As Bruno continues to insert himself into Guy’s life, police begin to suspect a connection between the men. Their relationship takes a sinister turn as the men develop a mutual obsession that leads to Guy to try to save Bruno’s life even as Bruno threatens to turn him in to the police. Guy’s inability to save Bruno from drowning makes him feel consumed by guilt and drives him to confess to the murder of Miriam and Bruno’s father.