David Farnor | On 18, Jan 2025

Director: Rose Glass
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Dave Franco, Anna Baryshnikov
Certificate: 15

“Anyone can feel strong hiding behind a piece of metal. I prefer to know my own strength.” Those are the determined words of Jackie (Katy O’Brian) in Love Lies Bleeding, an 80s bodybuilding crime romance that’s as unusual and striking as it sounds. The film marks the sophomore feature of director Rose Glass, who made her remarkable debut with St Maud. How on earth do you follow a distinctive horror about obsession going too far? With another, it turns out, but one that switches genre with the confidence and skill of someone who’s been doing this for decades.

Kristen Stewart stars as Lou, who manages a gym in rural New Mexico. One day, in walks Jackie, a bodybuilder who’s passing through as she heads for a contest in Las Vegas. Lou’s world isn’t exactly a cheerful place: her estranged father (Ed Harris) is steeped in crime and cruelty, her sister, Beth (Jena Malone), is married to an abusive husband, JJ (Dave Franco), while her friend Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov) is a little too into her. So Jackie’s arrival leaves Lou visibly longing both for her and for something new.

What ensues is an intense romance that has a toxic note running through its veins, a journey that’s echoed by the way Jackie is drawn into a world of steroid usage. The unfolding desire for freedom and independence from the controlling men around them, a thirst for each other and a drive to be strong enough to burst through all the barriers those things carry with them makes for a heady cocktail, and Rose Glass and co-writer Weronika Tofilska mix the ingredients into a sweaty, stylised, brooding piece.

The cast are uniformly fantastic, from the fiery Malone to Baryshnikov’s desperate Daisy, not to mention the wonderfully loathsome Harris as a seemingly unstoppable patriarchal force. Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart are magnetic together and apart, bringing ambiguity to their already muddied mix of feelings, turning a steamy bond into an unhealthy fixation. Glass, meanwhile, boldly escalates the genre flourishes as she invites us to contemplate the dangers of rage and violence, even as we gaze in awe at a woman who is big enough to overcome her surroundings. Is it a heroic climax or a darker harbinger of what’s to come? Glass is rapidly becoming one of the most intriguing directors working today.

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