Love Lies Bleeding

I’ve seen many a WLW film where it’s pretty fair to say that nothing happens in it. The “nothing happens” critique is also sometimes levied at films distributed by A24. Thankfully, Love Lies Bleeding, a WLW distributed by A24 very much avoids this problem. Things happen in Love Lies Bleeding. In fact, there’s several things that happen in this film which I haven’t seen in the 500+ WLW films I’ve seen and I don’t imagine I’ll see again in the future.

In 1980’s New Mexico, Lou works at a gym. She also has a truly awful haircut which won’t deter many audience members from finding her attractive anyways, because she’s Kristen Stewart. Lou’s relationship with her family is strained and she’s reticent to share any details of it with people she knows. When aspiring bodybuilder Jackie enters the gym she works at, Lou quickly takes notice of her. After a night of lesbian sex and steroid use, Lou offers Jackie a place to stay. The two fall in love. But both women are only a step removed from some violent criminal elements. As the two become more embroiled in criminality, Jackie’s reliance on steroids worsens and the skeletons in Lou’s closet become impossible to ignore.

Love Lies Bleeding is primarily a crime movie. And the crime elements of the film really work. This is a movie that is engaging and fairly unpredictable. You know violence is probably going to happen. But the who, when and how is consistently surprising. The violence on display is also suitably shocking. The film’s gritty, sometimes outright gross atmosphere also assists in making this an engaging story with real stakes and unpleasant consequences.

But while Love Lies Bleeding is mostly a crime thriller, there’s an element of body horror too. As Jackie takes steroids, her muscles swell rapidly, combined with an unpleasant sound effect. Bodybuilding is already borderline body horror to me and Love Lies Bleeding takes it further. However, the film never delves into full horror. And Jackie’s bodybuilding body horror ends with a visual that is frankly, laughable. I know it’s either hallucination or visual metaphor and that’s fine. I don’t mind that visual in and of itself. However, the body horror elements of Love Lies Bleeding didn’t always mix well with the rest of the story, especially because it doesn’t lead to a genuinely horrific climax.

I also have two nitpicks. The first is visual. Love Lies Bleeding does the occasional shot in high contrast red lighting. Usually, this is of Ed Harris looking menacing and very much like the crypt keeper. This sort of lighting has turned from a calling card into a stereotype for A24 movies. While this creative choice might’ve been fresh and cool a decade ago, by now the red drenched flashes of scary stuff has been overdone enough to not excite me in this 2024 film.

My other nitpick is more of a question. Are steroids hallucinogenic? Because the way Jackie interacts with them makes them seem like a drug that has strongly intoxicating properties. At one point it does also make her hallucinate some really spooky stuff. To my knowledge, this isn’t really how steroids work. They can alter mood and promote aggression and impulsivity, sure. But if you’re suddenly seeing spooky mask people and slurring your words, I think maybe those steroids might not be pure. Of course, these steroids also make Jackie’s muscles grow so fast there’s a sound that accompanies it. But I’m still not entirely convinced it wasn’t just the lesbianism of it all. Lesbian sex is just like that sometimes. We’re just that powerful.

Overall, Love Lies Bleeding is an engaging, nasty and occasionally muddled crime picture. It’s a great addition to WLW movie canon because of how much it does that’s unique. I have some reservations on how the movie mixes genres and perhaps, overstuffs the runtime. But man, what a welcome relief this film was from much of the stuff I’ve been watching. The film is far from boring. It’s high on ideas, high on passion and apparently, high on questionable steroids and potentially toxic lesbian love.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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