Love Lies Bleeding (2024) by Rose Glass – 4.2/5
Warning: Spoiler alert.
Rose Glass and A24 have released a sapphic revenge thriller so intoxicatingly unique that the only moments you’ll want to look away are those that make you feel sick and squeamish! However, this isn’t the first time the director has employed shock tactics to great effect. In her 2019 successful low-budget horror film Saint Maud, there are scenes so challenging to watch that even the bravest viewers might find themselves turning away.
Love Lies Bleeding has a fresh-faced style paired with a wild, synth-dominant soundtrack that keeps your heart beating to the jacked-up pulse of the film. This energy is supercharged with steroids, passion, guns, and the bitter aftertaste of a love-gone-sour dynamic, a feeling at times reminiscent of a Japanese manga. The storyline centres on revenge, a feeling dramatically redefined when Lou (Kristen Stewart) meets Jackie (Katy O’Brian), one ordinary night. Together, they transform into a lesbian Bonnie & Clyde, a Thelma & Louise, or a Clarence Worley and Alabama Whitman (from True Romance, 1993). However, Lou and her father (Ed Harris) share a history of violence — a cursed familial legacy Lou thought she had escaped. Can she break free from it once and for all?
Kristen Stewart is phenomenal in the lead role, proving why she is so consistently chosen for indie films. With her classic sweet-but-awkward style, made famous during her Twilight days, Stewart’s quirkiness and small-town punk rock attitude enhance the film’s wild and refreshing style. Katy O’Brian is captivating in her own rugged way; she dominates the screen and establishes herself as an up-and-coming star. Ed Harris and a surprisingly cast Dave Franco bring the dark side of the film to life, transforming it from a quirky sapphic romance into a twisted crime thriller.
It’s important not to take this film too literally; it’s imaginative cinema that’s unobvious and strays far from the usual — this is what makes it refreshing and unique. It’s one of A24’s weird little gems, a dark and unique piece that audiences will either love or hate. Watching it is a risk worth taking, but it’s not for the faint-hearted!