There’s nothing like the feeling of falling in love to inspire an engaging story. It’s been compared to madness, a sickness, a Force, but one thing can be agreed on: it’s one of the most powerful feelings ever, which is why it permeates every genre of film. From horror to rom-coms, the draw between two people is always a great source of conflict... or a source of resolution.
Earlier this year, one movie found a way to tell a love story unlike any other: a twisted thriller with a body count that still oozes heart and earnestness. Here’s why you should catch this unique story now that it’s streaming on Max.
Love Lies Bleeding is the sophomore feature from British director Rose Glass, who made a smash with her religious horror film Saint Maud. But the two movies have little in common. Love Lies Bleeding is set an ocean away and decades in the past: 1989 America, where gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) meets aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian.)
The two have an instant connection, but their love for each other slowly morphs into something else as Jackie starts using steroids. Meanwhile, Lou is forced to reckon with her estranged dad (Ed Harris), whose sinister shooting range seems to be the facade for a seedier business. When Lou’s sister is threatened, Jackie and Lou wind up with blood on their hands that leads them down a rabbit hole of cover-ups, fights, obsession, and, unfortunately, more blood.
This is normal fare for a thriller, especially a romantic thriller. But where Love Lies Bleeding is different is in how it’s directed. Rose Glass feeds into the characters’ delusions by presenting them as real as the characters believe them to be. When Jackie has a steroid-fueled hallucination of vomiting up a form of Lou, we see it as if it’s actually happening. When Lou and Jackie run away from their problems feeling larger than life, we see that literally, not figuratively.
Love Lies Bleeding is more than just a thriller with a surreal edge. It's a monster movie where the protagonists have to watch as their own personalities bend and shift into something they don’t recognize until the only thing that makes sense is their own connection to each other. It’s more than realistic, it’s hyperrealistic, showing the truth in a way that makes the intangible tangible.
Love may be the fuel to the engine keeping Lou and Jackie on their destructive path, but it’s also the only thing giving them purpose and keeping them going. Grounded by Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian’s raw, infatuated performances, Lou and Jackie are the Romeo and Juliet of their own stories and the Bonnie and Clyde of everyone else’s. Regardless, it doesn’t end well for either.
But in the world of Love Lies Bleeding, all you really need is love, and if that exists, then that’s enough of a happy ending.
