Love Lies Bleeding Review

A Roid Rage Love Affair

Rose Glass' follow-up to Saint Maud doesn't just live up to the hype, but it's nastier and hotter than I could ever imagine. It's late 80s depressive glam, body-horror building, and a fucked up love story mixed into one. This romantic thriller that's juiced to the gills (literally) blew away my expectations, and it's a big thanks to Katy O'Brian's monstrous performance as Jackie. Neo-noir has never been so back.

The story follows Lou (Kristen Stewart), who's a lost lesbian gym manager in New Mexico who is quickly taken aback by a beautiful and jacked Jackie(Katy O'Brian) lifting in her gym. They instantly fall for each other and fall down a dark rabbit hole of steroid use and lust. Jackie is a nomad training to win a body-building competition in Las Vegas while waitressing for Lou's mobster father (Ed Harris), and Lou must remain in her hometown to take care of and protect her abused sister Beth (Jena Malone) from her horrid husband (Dave Franco). All these lives crash into each other, leading to murder, coverups, and rage.

Katy O'Brian is a sensation in this. She's not just giving an incredible physical performance, but the way she loses control from her steroid use and terrible decisions is just so brutal to see. Her rage, combined with her dreamlike sense of being and hope to achieve something great, boils down to a masterful display that's a scene while posing on stage to breaking the jaw off a man. Kristen Stewart is haunted by her past and the possibility of becoming her evil father. She gives a performance that is someone trying to maintain control while also having a massive panic attack. Jackie and Lou's titillating relationship is a lustful idea of love covered in blood and protein shakes. Still, I was ultimately here to see how these two characters explored each other to the darkest depths.

I was blown away by Glass' style and visceral filmmaking here. They use 80s neon lighting to significant effect here that will sometimes wholly fill a room or a character's face. The use of shadows and darkness smeared with flashes of dark, bloody red imagery sets a dark mood for the whole movie. The violence is usually quick but so brutal and effective. The body horror is on display here with the expansion of Jackie's muscle as she continues to inject more and more steroids, and how it sends her down this path of anger and destruction is put on screen masterfully.

In the 90s, this sexy thriller would easily have made $100 million at the box office. It has intense and bloody action, hot and intimate sex, and Ed Harris with an excellent evil presence who's obsessed with exotic bugs. What more could you want?! If you get a chance, you should run to a theater to see this and behold the movie-making muscles that are being flexed in Love Lie Bleeding.

8.5/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit