---
title: "Love Lies Bleeding"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/love-lies-bleeding"
fi1m_id: "love-lies-bleeding"
imdb_id: "tt19637052"
tmdb_id: 948549
wikidata_id: "Q113488690"
fi1m_score: 75
critics_score: 77
critics_reviews: 20
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:59.425785+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Directed by Rose Glass · 1h 44m · MPA R · Crime, Romance, Thriller

## Identity

Love Lies Bleeding

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/love-lies-bleeding
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** love-lies-bleeding
- **IMDb ID:** tt19637052
- **TMDB ID:** 948549
- **Wikidata ID:** Q113488690
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19637052/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/948549, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113488690

**Fi1m score: 75** · Critics 77 from 20 reviews

*In a sentence:* Kristen Stewart unblocks a toilet in the first five minutes and the film gets less hygienic from there

> Rose Glass follows *Saint Maud* with a sweaty desert noir about a gym manager, a bodybuilder and a great deal of blood. For an hour it is the best kind of pulp; then it gets bigger, louder and less interesting, though never dull.

## Synopsis

A desert town in the 1980s. Lou (Kristen Stewart) manages a run-down gym, lives alone, and keeps her distance from her father, Lou Sr. (Ed Harris), who runs the gun range outside town and has a past nobody discusses. Her sister Beth (Jena Malone) is married to JJ (Dave Franco), who hits her. Into this comes Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder hitching her way to a competition in Las Vegas, who takes a job at the gun range and a bench in Lou’s gym. The two begin an affair within a day. Lou gives Jackie steroids to help her train, and Jackie’s body starts to change.

## Review

Rose Glass’s first film, *Saint Maud*, was a small, tight thing about a nurse and God in a seaside town. Her second is set in the American desert in the 1980s, runs on steroids, sex and gunfire, and is about twice as loud. Lou (Kristen Stewart) manages a gym so run down that the first thing we see her do is clear a blocked toilet. Jackie (Katy O’Brian) hitches into town on her way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas and comes in to use the weights. Within a day they are in bed. For an hour this is as good a piece of pulp as we have seen in some time. After that it gets bigger, and we liked it a little less with every enlargement.

The romance is the film’s engine and it works. Stewart plays Lou with a mullet, a permanent cigarette and the posture of someone who stayed in her home town too long and knows it. O’Brian has the harder job, because Jackie’s body is the film’s central prop and she has to be a person as well. She plays her as open and hopeful, a woman who believes hard work gets rewarded. Lou hands her a vial of steroids early on, and Ben Fordesman’s camera goes in close on a shoulder as the muscle swells under the skin, with a sound like wet rope taking strain. We were unnerved by it, more than by anything bloodier later, because it is not a monster effect. It is a body doing what bodies do, only faster and on purpose.

Around the couple Glass and her co-writer Weronika Tofilska have built a family that any noir would recognise. Ed Harris is Lou Sr., who runs the gun range outside town, keeps insects in glass cases, and wears his long grey hair down the back of a bald head. Jena Malone is Lou’s sister Beth, married to JJ (Dave Franco), who hits her; Franco plays him as a moustache with a grievance, and the film does not ask for more. Anna Baryshnikov’s Daisy, who is in love with Lou and will not be told otherwise, gets most of the laughs.

It looks and sounds as it should. Katie Hickman’s gym has tired mirrors, fluorescent tubes and equipment older than its members, and Lou Sr.’s house is a place where things are kept rather than lived in. Fordesman lights the nights with sodium lamps and shop neon and bleaches the days to bone; the flashbacks come in a saturated red that tells you what they are before anyone speaks. Olga Mill puts Lou in vests two sizes too big and Jackie in cropped Lycra, so that one of them is hiding and one is not. Clint Mansell’s score is analogue synthesiser, low and pulsing, and it recalls the decade without doing an impression of it. Mark Towns cuts fast and lands several jokes on the edit alone.

Then the second half arrives, and Glass keeps adding: more bodies, more blood, more veins, and a climax that takes a swerve we will not describe. The story gets thinner as the pictures get bigger. People start doing what the genre needs rather than what they would do, and Lou Sr., a real threat in his first two scenes, is reduced to an obstacle. The film has one idea, that wanting someone is a drug and a drug makes you larger and worse, and it has made it plain by the hour mark. After that it repeats the idea at greater volume, and we started to notice the time.

*Saint Maud* frightened us because it kept its world small and its heroine close. This is a looser, wider film, and it trades that closeness for energy, a fair trade for a while. The obvious ancestors are *Blood Simple* and [*Bound*](https://film.one/film/bound), both of which knew when to stop. Most critics have been warm and so are we; the most excited of them are describing the first hour.

See it with someone who will not look away during the injections. At 104 minutes it does not dawdle, and the 15 certificate is, if anything, generous.

*Fi1m score 75, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are warm and the spread is narrow: most critics like Love Lies Bleeding, none dislikes it, and the reservations are modest. Praise gathers first on the two leads. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian are credited with real chemistry and a romance that feels desperate and physical, and Stewart’s performance is singled out again and again. Rose Glass is admired for keeping control of the excess: the sex scenes, the graphic violence and the neon-lit 1980s setting are what critics enjoy most, with Clint Mansell’s score noted approvingly.

The doubts cluster on the writing. Several critics find the plot familiar and leaning on noir conventions, the characters thin beneath the style, and the last stretch either muddled or too tidy. The New Yorker, Time Out and The Ringer sit lowest, with The Ringer finding the climax weightless, and Screen Daily thinks the film is derivative rather than transgressive. A minority also finds it less unsettling than Saint Maud.

## Straight answers

**Is Love Lies Bleeding worth watching?**

*Love Lies Bleeding* is worth watching for anyone who likes their crime thrillers sweaty, bloody and unashamedly pulpy, and we scored it 75. The first hour is the best of it, carried by Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian as a gym manager and a bodybuilder who fall into bed within a day. The second half gets bigger and louder and we liked it a little less for it, though it is never dull.

**How long is Love Lies Bleeding, and what is it rated?**

*Love Lies Bleeding* runs 1h 44m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a crime and romance film.

**Where can I watch Love Lies Bleeding in the US?**

*Love Lies Bleeding* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Love Lies Bleeding, and is it suitable for children?**

*Love Lies Bleeding* is a 15 certificate in the UK and R in the US, and it is not for children. It contains a great deal of blood, gunfire, sex, steroid injections shown in close-up, and a husband who beats his wife. We found the scenes of muscle swelling under skin more unnerving than any of the violence, so the squeamish should be warned.

**How does Love Lies Bleeding compare to Bound?**

*Love Lies Bleeding* is the looser and wilder of the two, a desert noir that trades tight plotting for energy, blood and steroids, while [*Bound*](https://film.one/film/bound) is a nimble crime thriller about two women and a very tidy plan. We think *Bound* knows when to stop and this one does not. Take the earlier film if you want the cleaner story, and this one if you want the bigger, messier ride.

**What should I watch after Love Lies Bleeding?**

After *Love Lies Bleeding*, try [*Bound*](https://film.one/film/bound) (1996, Fi1m 80): The Wachowskis’ first film: two women, one mob husband, one very tidy plan. Then [*Saint Maud*](https://film.one/film/saint-maud) (2019, Fi1m 82): Glass’s first: smaller, colder, and it never once loses its grip.

### Reviews we read (31)

- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (90/100, inferred): The critic hails the film as a masterpiece and a turbo-charged lesbian crime thriller that boldly uses body horror and violence. It roots for the central couple's desperate, horny affair while exploring power, gender and toxic femininity without slowing down. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart-3034517)
- **Empire**, Laura Venning (85/100, inferred): The review calls it a visceral, blood-soaked all-American fable anchored in a swoon-worthy queer romance full of potent eroticism and energy. Glass subverts masculine tropes with a wonderfully gay sensibility and strong chemistry between the leads. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/love-lies-bleeding/)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (Critics Pick): The critic hails the film as a queer romantic noir that goes to extremes, praising its originality, control, and vision of new feminine power. They single out the delirious ultra-violence and gonzo twists while noting Rose Glass remains fiercely in control. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart-katy-obrian-1235880589)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (4/4/5): The critic calls it a Molotov cocktail of lurid, luscious filmmaking from a bright young star, hot, dirty, fast and combustible. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brien are on fire as star-crossed lovers in this ’80s throwback thriller. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/love-lies-bleeding)
- **The Independent**, Clarisse Loughrey (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's intense portrayal of desperate female yearning for power through a hypnotic, steroid-fuelled queer romance. Stewart and O'Brian deliver standout performances in this macabre fable from the director of Saint Maud. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-review-b2535365.html)
- **The AV Club**, Lauren Coates (B): The review highlights the strong chemistry between leads and O'Brian's standout performance alongside striking visuals, but faults the meandering plot, familiar tropes, and failure to fully live up to expectations set by Saint Maud. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/love-lies-bleeding-movie-review-kristen-stewart-1851325720)
- **Evening Standard**, El Hunt (75/100, inferred): The review highlights the film's gory, surreal neo-noir as the standout in a wave of violent sapphic cinema, calling it entertaining and subversive despite leaning on tropes. It subverts expectations through its charismatic queer leads and absurd, violent energy. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/love-lies-bleeding-movie-review-kristen-stewart-katy-obrian-rose-glass-b1154771.html)
- **Total Film** (75/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a neon-drenched desert noir and primal roar of righteous rage with excellent lead performances. The actors shine amid a mix of bodybuilding thriller elements and outré moments that sometimes threaten to overwhelm the tapestry. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/love-lies-bleeding-review/)
- **Financial Times**, Jonathan Romney (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it a visually striking slice of Gothic delirium with daring carnality and violence, but notes it eventually swerves into incoherence like a superior B-movie pumped on aesthetic steroids. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/e6508dc1-519f-4cd9-bf42-6364be90609f)
- **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the film entertaining with clever twists and strong performances from Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian, but notes thin characterization and a reliance on genre conventions that leaves characters underdeveloped. They single out the performances and the brisk story while criticizing the emptiness and lack of deeper context. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/18/love-lies-bleeding-movie-review)
- **Time Out**, Elizabeth Weitzman (3/5): The critic describes it as a pulpy neo-noir romance and the best B-movie of the year, a batshit fever dream tailored to Stewart’s talents with wickedly unsparing insight and humour. Glass does not quite match her previous high standards but turns genre tropes inside out. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/love-lies-bleeding-2024)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson: The critic calls the film a marvelously seedy erotic thriller where dangerous lusts and noirish calculations are alive and well, praising its technical style and fun in watching the blood splatter. They single out the sex scenes, O'Brian's physical presence, and the film's willingness to tease comedy from its dark premise. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-03-08/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart-katy-obrian-ross-glass-a24)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Brian Tallerico: The critic praises the film as a sexy, brutal, violent and kinetic piece of filmmaking that confirms Rose Glass as a major talent. They single out the strong central performances, especially Kristen Stewart's, and the film's gritty, sweaty style and control amid chaos. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-movie-review-2024)
- **Screen Daily**: The critic calls it an audacious, pulpy crime-thriller with wicked humour, smouldering sex scenes and shocking graphic violence, painting a damning picture of America. Despite colourful atmosphere and gutsy performances, it ultimately feels derivative rather than transgressive. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-sundance-review/5189658.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The critic finds the film a disjointed but compelling 1980s-set crime thriller of passionate extremes, filled with blood, sex and brawn. It comes most alive in its graphic but stylised violence and sex scenes, though the journey can feel muddled. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-this-bodybuilding-melodrama-film-passionate-extremes)
- **Slant Magazine**, Pat Brown: The review commends the propulsive energy, vivid performances, and queer perspective on love amid violence but finds the story formulaic and overly reliant on style at the expense of deeper character motivation. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart-katy-obrian/)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The critic praises the film as an uproarious, violently smart noir thriller with strong performances, especially Kristen Stewart's subtle turn as gym manager Lou. Glass is celebrated for blending grindhouse energy with wit and surreal touches in this bodybuilding crime story. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/02/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic calls the film a bold, ultra-violent lesbian neo-noir with Kristen Stewart's commanding presence at its center, praising its excess and pulp energy while noting it lacks the unsettling power of Glass's prior work. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart-1235794464/)
- **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin: The critic calls it a jaw-dropping, gruesome psychosexual thriller and mouth-wateringly disreputable pulp cinema. Glass delivers an audacious, hot and nasty follow-up full of grotesque characters and nothing-to-lose energy. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/love-lies-bleeding-kristen-stewart/)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher: The review describes an exhilarating romp that revitalises noir with steroid-fueled surreal violence and a torrid romance. Glass is credited with another bold, brash success after Saint Maud. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/love-lies-bleeding-film-review-an-exhilarating-romp-with-kristen-stewart-5z3gqx7zs)
- **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri: The critic praises the intimate passion, bold visuals, and mythic scale of the romance between the leads but notes that later violence relies too heavily on stylized gore that can feel one-note. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/love-lies-bleeding-review-more-than-violence-and-grandeur.html)
- **/Film**, Bill Bria (9/10): The critic calls it a thrillingly grimy, seedy body-horror noir that is unabashedly queer and winningly deranged, with fantastic chemistry between the leads. It offers a refreshingly honest depiction of messy love. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1502464/love-lies-bleeding-review/)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (8/10): Rose Glass delivers a bold, exciting sophomore feature that cranks up horror, suspense, and imagery. Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian give electric, passionate performances in a dirty, sweaty, sexy thriller packed with tension and unexpected moments. [Read](https://collider.com/love-lies-bleeding-review/)
- **Deadline**, Valerie Complex (80/100, inferred): The critic describes an intense, queer, unconventional love story between unstable characters, marked by strong performances and a visually arresting narrative that explores destructive relationships. Glass captures a snapshot of America filled with guns, bloodshed, and lawlessness, enhanced by sexy, campy queers for thrills and captivating energy. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/01/love-lies-bleeding-review-gays-doing-the-burying-rose-glass-thriller-sundance-film-festival-1235797525/)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a sensational, entertaining sophomore effort from Glass that is unashamedly sexy and queer, with sizzling chemistry between Stewart and O'Brian. Some narrative choices favor style over substance and the ending feels undercooked. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-review-rose-glass-thriller-is-sensationally-erotic-and-entertaining/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Thomas Alexander (4/5): The critic praises the bold, brutal and uncompromising romance-thriller as a testament to Glass, with raw chemistry and unflinching violence and sex scenes. Some outlandish sequences feel gimmicky and detract slightly from the strong performances. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/love-lies-bleeding-review/)
- **NME**, Lou Thomas (4/5): The critic calls it Kristen Stewart’s most exciting film yet and a brilliant noir packed with sex, drugs and violence, comparing it favorably to Bound and Blood Simple for its shocks, characters and dialogue, while praising the bold visuals, neon lighting, red-saturated flashbacks and atmospheric score by Clint Mansell. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/love-lies-bleeding-berlin-review-kristen-stewart-3589960)
- **The Playlist**, Marshall Shaffer (B): The critic sees a compelling tale of transformation and obsession that is pulpy and rabble-rousing with expressive direction and strong leads. It can feel messy, relies on cinematic shorthand, and sacrifices some clarity in characterization. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/love-lies-bleeding-review-rose-glass-bloody-brutal-bash-burns-passion-pride-sundance-20240121/)
- **The Wrap** (75/100, inferred): Glass’s sophomore feature relishes sex, love, and violence in a compelling psychological thriller that is a fantastic companion to Saint Maud. Stewart delivers a powerhouse performance in a role defined by sexuality, love, lust, anger, and connection, as the film spins a murder scenario into a bombastic twist on the crime drama with an impressive directorial achievement. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/love-lies-bleeding-review-kristen-stewart/)
- **The Ringer**, Adam Nayman (60/100, inferred): Glass's follow-up to Saint Maud is a brazen, reality-blurring neo-noir sexploitation riff with palpable sensual pleasure and strong performances, especially from Stewart. It shows pitfalls in its excessive contrivance, relentless style, and weightless climax that leaves exhaustion rather than satisfaction. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2024/03/13/movies/love-lies-bleeding-movie-review)
- **Paste**, Brianna Zigler (8.0): Glass crafts a far more effective horror film than Saint Maud, with sensuality, grotesque imagery, and a gripping thriller-crime story elevated into a gorgeous night terror. Stewart and O'Brian have incredible chemistry in one of the best films of 2024 so far, though the conclusion feels too neatly packaged. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/kristen-stewart/love-lies-bleeding-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Rose Glass
- **Director:** Rose Glass
- **Writer:** Rose Glass, Weronika Tofilska
- **Cinematography:** Ben Fordesman
- **Editor:** Mark Towns
- **Music:** Clint Mansell
- **Production design:** Katie Hickman
- **Costume design:** Olga Mill
- **Producer:** Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman
- **Cast:** Kristen Stewart as Lou; Katy O'Brian as Jackie; Ed Harris as Lou Sr.; Dave Franco as JJ; Jena Malone as Beth; Anna Baryshnikov as Daisy; Orion Carrington as O'Riley; Matthew Blood-Smyth as Dave
- **Runtime:** 1h 44m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 15 March 2024
- **Genres:** Crime, Romance, Thriller
- **Budget:** $10 million
- **Box office:** $13 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AULR_GPteNQ

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, BE, BR, CL, CO, DK, EC, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, JP, KR, MX, NL, NO, PA, PE, SG, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Bound* (1996), Fi1m 80: The Wachowskis’ first film: two women, one mob husband, one very tidy plan. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/bound.md)
- *Blood Simple* (1984): The Coens’ Texas noir, where getting rid of a body is the whole film.
- *Saint Maud* (2019), Fi1m 82: Glass’s first: smaller, colder, and it never once loses its grip. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/saint-maud.md)
- *Pumping Iron II: The Women* (1985): The documentary on female bodybuilding that shows what Jackie is training for.
- *Stranger by the Lake* (2013): Sun, desire and a murder at a French lakeside; nobody behaves sensibly.

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/love-lies-bleeding