Love Lies Bleeding got me hook, lie, and sinker with its advertising material from its strangely but wonderfully stylised trailer to its intriguing poster (gotta be a top contestant for film poster of 2024 in my opinion). But aside from solid central performances, Love Lies Bleeding left me feeling a little let down. While Stewart and O’Brian in particular give great performances, you can’t help but shake the feeling that you’ve seen this kinda tale before.

 

Lou is a reclusive gym manager who falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder who's heading to Las Vegas to pursue her dream. Their love soon leads to violence as they get pulled deep into the web of Lou's criminal family.

 

From the twisty, slightly psychedelic noir revenge vibe to the themes it explores, I was struck by not only the slowness of the pace of the film, but just how predictable it was. There are some moments that were meant to catch the audience by surprise, both narratively and in a jump scare, gotcha kinda way. While they were executed well, they just didn’t gut punch me as I was kinda expecting. 

 

Now don’t get me wrong, the themes and perspectives are given a platform which is necessary and right, it just didn’t grab me the way I expected this kinda film to. Even though the cinematography and production design is great, it doesn’t offer the inventive and out of the box approach that you’d expect from this kind of indie film. 

 

While Kristen Stewart gives a solid, central performance, its Katy M. O’Brian who is the star of the show here, traversing the line between broken and battered by life to grabbing her destiny firmly in both hands by any means necessary. 

 

While Stewart and O’Brian in particular give great performances, you can’t help but shake the feeling that you’ve seen this kinda tale before.