Love Lies Bleeding is a 2024 American romantic thriller film directed by Rose Glass, written by Glass and Weronika Tofilska and produced by A24 and Film4.
In the 1980s, a reclusive gym manager, Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls hard for Jackie (Katy O'Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou's criminal family.
The film also stars Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco and Ed Harris. It released on March 8, 2024.
Previews: Trailer
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Love Lies Bleeding provides examples of:
- '80s Hair: Jackie and Lou both sport very '80s hairdos, particularly the latter having a mullet. On the male side, JJ sports a ratty mullet, and Lou Sr. sports a glorious skullet.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Lou is pursued by Daisy, an obsequious druggie, and does everything she can to keep away from her.
- Abusive Parents:
- Lou Sr. forced Lou into helping with his criminal empire and turns a blind eye to Beth being abused by her husband JJ, who works for him.
- Jackie's adoptive mother calls her a "monster" when she calls home.
- All for Nothing: Under the influence of steroids and unwilling to give up her dream, Jackie ignores Lou's instructions and goes to Las Vegas for the bodybuilding competition. Thanks to the steroids, not only does she not win, but she humiliates herself by hallucinating and vomiting on stage, then assaults another competitor for laughing at her, which lands her back in Lou Sr.'s hands, now much worse off than she was before.
- Amazonian Beauty: Jackie is a professional bodybuilder, where flexing and showing off muscle is the name of the game, and Lou is smitten with her.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Jackie's size-shifting. Is it because of the performance enhancing drugs Lou gives her? Or was she born like this, repressed it, and the drugs merely brought it out? Evidence for the latter theory is that Lou gives similar drugs to other people at the gym but no one else has become a giant. Also, during a phone-call home, Jackie's relative calls her a "monster", though it's not specified what she meant. Another possibility is Jackie isn't a size-shifter at all and her size changes are just metaphors for her emotional state. This is implied during the end when both Jackie and Lou are shown as giants running away together.
- What happened to Lou's mom? Lou accuses her father of killing her. He says she abandoned the family because she hated him, and her daughter. We do not learn her fate, though an FBI agent claims that she was ready to step forward with evidence against Lou Sr., giving him plenty of motive to kill his wife.
- Animal Lover: Subverted. Lou Sr. seems to be one after looking after JJ's pet bird after his death without much to gain from it, only to have him take a bite out of his own pet beetle during a Villanous Breakdown near the climax.
- Asshole Victim:
- JJ, who abused Lou's sister Beth, gets beaten to death by Jackie under the effects of her roid rage after his abuse puts Beth in a coma at the hospital.
- Daisy, who sexually harasses Lou at the gym and blackmails her for sex, is shot by Jackie, and eventually finished off by Lou.
- Black Comedy: Several scenes of violence are darkly humorous, including the ending, where Lou drags Daisy's corpse away from the road, then stops to rummage in the dead girl's purse to steal a cigarette, all while Jackie sleeps unaware.
- Blackmail: Without making any threats, Daisy effectively blackmails Lou with her knowledge of Lou's involvement in the murder of JJ into getting Lou to accept dating her.
- Boom, Headshot!: Daisy is killed by a single gunshot to the head, though it turns out that she's not quite dead.
- Butch Lesbian: Jackie (a female bodybuilder) is in a lesbian relationship with Lou, who also comes off as butch with her mullet, tank tops, and pick-up truck. Midway through the film Jackie clarifies she's bisexual. This is apparently what Lou is into, given her copy of Macho Sluts.
- Chekhov's Skill: Lou Sr. teaches Jackie how to shoot a pistol even though she Doesn't Like Guns. Later, she uses a pistol to land a clean headshot on Daisy.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Daisy is an Abhorrent Admirer of Lou's and is jealous of Jackie when the pair start hooking up.
- Color Motif: Red. Flashbacks and some scenes around the gorge are presented purely in ominous red.
- Crazy Consumption: Lou Senior loves bugs and has several pets. But when Lou turns against him, he smashes their tanks, grabs one, and eats it.
- Cruel Mercy: Once Lou Sr. has been taken down, Lou considers shooting him in the head, but ultimately chooses to instead let him suffer the indignity of being arrested while helplessly lying on the ground.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Lou is estranged from her parents. In the end, it's implied that she was forced or manipulated into killing people for her father.
- Jackie says she was adopted at the age 13 but left her home with no money or prospects for unspecified reasons. When she phones home, her adopted mother calls her a monster.
- Dies Wide Open: Daisy dies with her eyes open. Lou shuts them immediately before covering her with a blanket.
- Dirty Cop: Lou Sr. has a cop on his payroll who helps cover up his crimes and even agrees to assassinate his daughter.
- Disposing of a Body: Lou Sr. has a gorge where he disposes all the people who would rat out his gun-running operation. Lou and Jackie also find themselves with bodies to dispose of.
- Doesn't Like Guns: When Jackie is asked by Lou's father if she likes guns, she answers "Not really".
- Domestic Abuser: JJ is a vile piece of work who beats his wife, Lou's sister Beth. One incident lands Beth in the hospital and makes Lou say out loud that she wants to kill JJ. Hearing this, a 'roid raging Jackie beats JJ to death, setting off the rest of the movie.
- Drugs Are Bad: Lou gets Jackie into steroids to bulk up her physique even more, and what Jackie does in a fit of 'roid rage ends up kicking off future events.
- Easily Forgiven: Lou seems to quickly forget the fact that Jackie tried to shoot her immediately after killing Daisy.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Even though it's the 1980s, Lou admits that her father doesn't care about homosexuality. When Lou Sr. sees Jackie in Beth's hospital room, he just smirks as he connects her to Lou.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Lou is rude and hostile to people while doing disgusting tasks at work, showing that she's a bitter person without much going on and that she often gets stuck cleaning up after others.
- Jackie punches a gym rat who's twice her size after he makes an insulting remark even though it gets her punched as well, showing her propensity for reckless violence.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Deconstructed; despite her husband JJ being an utter scumbag, Beth still loves him, and she's devastated by his death, angrily railing against Lou for it. Beth's dedication to JJ, rather than being a sign of compassion on her part or that there's anything worthwhile about him, is shown to be at the cost of her relationship with Lou, who genuinely cares about her. Lou ultimately calls Beth a moron for her loyalty to a man who did nothing but hurt her and the sisters part on very bitter terms.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Discussed and defied. When JJ's burned-up car is discovered in the gorge, the sheriff immediately knows it's a fake accident because cars don't actually explode when they crash. It only happens in the movies.
- Foreshadowing: We see Gulliver's Travels playing in television early in the film, in which Gulliver picks up a Lilliputian. In the end, Jackie grows to gargantuan size and picks up Lou Sr.
- Funny Background Event: As the camera focuses on Jackie snoozing in the truck, Lou disposes of Daisy's corpse in the background and takes a smoke break.
- Gainax Ending: Played With. After Lou's father shoots her, there's a few moments where Jackie, now somehow 50 feet tall, pulls him off her and pins him down until she and Lou, who has also grown 50 feet tall, escape hand in hand. This is never explained, although the next and final scene shows Lou and Jackie in the car together, driving away, so it seems it's likely just an emotionally charged version of what actually happened.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Lou gets instantly jealous when she sees a male gym rat hitting on Jackie. She immediately closes the gym down to shut it down.
- He Knows Too Much: Lou Sr. orders Jackie to shoot Daisy due to witnessing her trying to dispose JJ's body for this reason. He is also suspected of having killed his wife for this reason years in the past.
- Hidden Depths: Daisy isn't exactly a bright bulb, but she picks up on the clues that Jackie and Lou were involved in JJ's murder.
- Hollywood Healing: Lou gets shot in the leg. By sun-up, she's not even limping.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: Lou locks and loads a pistol before setting out to confront her father.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: The wife-beating loser JJ is introduced being a lousy lover to Jackie. After he's finished, he proclaims, "That was magical!"
- Love Hurts: After killing Daisy to protect Lou, Jackie calls her adoptive family and tearfully tells her sister to never fall in love because it hurts so much.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Like any good film noir, most of the bad situations in this movie could have been avoided if the protagonists weren't blinded by love. More directly, Lou calls her sister a moron when she won't stop loving JJ even after JJ put her in the hospital.
- Mafia Princess: Lou is the daughter of a wealthy gun-smuggler.
- Magical Homeless Person: Jackie is shown sleeping under a bridge before she meets Lou. She is also a Sizeshifter. Maybe.
- Magical Realism: Granted, the scenes in question could be read as abstracted versions of the actual events, but in an otherwise pretty gritty crime drama Jackie might be capable of growing to gigantic proportions rather than just buff.
- Mercy Kill: After the climax of the movie, Lou discovers that Daisy is still barely alive in the back of her truck. She chokes her to death and disposes of the body.
- Missing Mom: Lou's mom left when she was in her teens. It is strongly implied that she was murdered by Lou Sr. when she attempted to expose his crimes to the police.
- Mushroom Samba: As Jackie gets further into steroid addiction, she experiences hallucinations and dissociation. An especially powerful hallucination occurs as she's competing in Vegas, causing her to assault her fellow competitors and get arrested.
- Not Quite Dead: After Jackie shoots Daisy in the face, Lou wraps her body in a carpet and eventually pulls it down to her truck. In the final scene, Daisy starts moving in the bed of the truck, revealing she survived... until Lou goes back into the bed and finishes the job.
- Pet the Dog: After JJ's death, Lou Sr. takes pity on his neglected pet bird and takes care of it.
- Pistol-Whipping: Lou delivers a hard one to Nick the dirty cop after he fails to take her out.
- Psycho Serum: A Truth in Television example with Jackie’s steroid addiction.
- Red Right Hand:
- Lou Sr. couldn't look more unsavory with his curtain of long hair draping down from an otherwise bald head.
- The drugged out and cheerfully amoral Daisy sports a mouthful of grey teeth.
- Rent-a-Zilla: What starts out as a gritty neo-noir with a Queer Romance angle ends with the two female leads as Giant Women, although it's implied to be all in the characters' minds.
- Shooting Gallery: Jackie works as a waitress at a shooting range.
- Shout-Out:
- JJ notes that the recent release of Die Hard has made the gun range quite popular.
- Rose Glass has stated that Thelma & Louise was an inspiration for this movie. We eventually learn that Lou's full name is Louise.
- Vertigo Effect: A subtle one is used during Jackie's bodybuilding performance to show her slipping mental state from steroid abuse.
- Villainous Breakdown: Once Lou Sr. learns that his daughter intends to expose his operation, he flies into a rage, trashing his office and eating his own pet beetle.
- Wham Shot: The shot of JJ's face, or rather what's left of it, when Lou goes to his house to find Jackie.
- Wife-Basher Basher: When JJ puts Beth in the hospital, Lou openly contemplates ending him once and for all. Jackie, meanwhile, actually does so.
