‘Love Lies Bleeding’ review: this steroid-fuelled thriller is Kristen Stewart’s most exciting film yet

From a woman-turned-vampire in the Twilight saga to doomed Princess Diana in Spencer, via surgery enthusiast Timlin in David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, Kristen Stewart’s career already has its share of fascinating roles. But now, she gives a deliciously chewy lead turn as gym manager Lou in what might be the most exciting film of her career: the wild, violent and tremendous Love Lies Bleeding, which has just played at Berlin Film Festival.

It’s 1989 in New Mexico when homeless bodybuilder Jackie (actor and martial artist Katy O’Brian) is punched in the face by a man making unwanted advances towards her outside Lou’s gym. Lou takes her in and they begin an explosive love affair that soon leads them towards danger. Just prior to meeting Lou, Jackie had sex with JJ (a memorably sleazy Dave Franco) after he suggests he can get her a job at the gun range owned by Lou Senior, Lou’s semi-estranged father. Violent, vicious abuser JJ is married to Lou’s sister, Beth (Jena Malone).

When Beth, JJ, Lou and Jackie meet over dinner, a confrontation about Beth’s latest bruises compels JJ to reveal his tryst with Jackie to Lou, causing a row between the newly loved-up women. Like so many abusers who can’t keep their hands to themselves, JJ soon goes too far and Beth ends up badly beaten and facially disfigured in hospital. Partly because of the upset this causes and partly because she’s feeling the heady effects of the steroid injections Lou has been giving her, Jackie murders JJ by slamming his head repeatedly into a table. Those of a squeamish disposition will be disgusted by the mess made of JJ’s face; horror fans and appreciators of lurid cinematic violence will be grimly impressed. When the dumping of JJ’s body ends ups attracting the wrath of Lou Senior (Ed Harris with a remarkable hairpiece), the carnage accelerates at a rapid pace.

Following up the oddball nun brilliance of her 2019 debut Saint Maud, director Rose Glass, who co-wrote the film with Weronika Tofilska, has delivered a brilliant noir packed with those great pulp ingredients: sex, drugs and violence. Lovers of the Wachowski Sisters’ excellent 1994 thriller Bound will surely appreciate the mood and content, but Love Lies Bleeding will also draw comparisons to the Coen Brothers’ superb 1984 debut, Blood Simple. It has a similar blend of shocks, fascinating characters and hard-bitten dialogue, though visually it’s bolder and brighter with harsh neon and stylish, red-saturated flashbacks. And sonically, it’s even better thanks to an extraordinary atmospheric score by Clint Mansell.

You might argue that certain fantastical elements here – a scene near the end with a big confrontation springs to mind – take things a little too far, but when you’ve got such richness on screen and K Stew in top, sultry form, this can be forgiven. Love Lies Bleeding is a real Friday night film: a massively entertaining thriller to savour on the big screen, then revisit at home whenever you fancy a lively evening.

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