Audiences are predominantly wired to relate to protagonists, to empathize with their troubles, to revel in their highs and wince at the lows. It is why so many ‘anti-hero’ shows had such a hard time getting off the ground, with TV execs citing their sheer unlikability as a deterrent.
Love Lies Bleeding presents us with Lou – as far as film protagonists go, one who is easier to root for. Sure, she might dabble in the occasional dose of performance enhancing steroids at the gym where she works, but by and large she has a moral compass that prevents her from associating with her father (Lou Sr, who operates a gun-range and a lucrative if illegal side hustle shipping weapons across the border) or leaving her sister Beth behind, who often ends up in hospital after being assaulted by her husband JJ but has refused to press charges so far. When Jackie, a bodybuilder from Oklahoma who dreams of winning the championships in Vegas stops by in town, love sparks between the two, kicking off a chain of events that result in tragedy and death.
Despite falling in love, they remain guarded with each other. Lou does not share why she chooses not to leave town until a falling out forces it out of her. Throughout the film, we never learn what drove Jackie to run away from Oklahoma outside of a brief conversation with who is presumably a younger sibling, and a mother who does not want her back. Despite copious amounts of physical intimacy, a certain degree of emotional subterfuge remains.
As the film progresses into thriller territory with Jackie murdering Beth’s abusive husband, the audience would not be blamed for celebrating the act. The moment is framed akin to a horror film (perhaps a leaf out of Rose Glass’s previous outing Saint Maud), with Jackie’s formidable frame towering impossibly high over the body. Does the ultimate act of violence against the aggressor compensate for the abuse meted out at his hands?
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As Jackie turns to steroids with increasing frequency and desperation, we are treated to occasional close-ups of her muscles cracking and veins popping (a tad bit overused, in my opinion) as her body morphs into a stronger, bigger version. At times, we share some surreal moments with Jackie as the drugs distort and change the world around her.
But perhaps the most potent drug of all is love (misplaced or otherwise), the toxicity of which prevents Beth from seeing her husband’s abuse for what it is, the potency of which drives both Lou and Jackie to take human life to protect each other.
Throughout the film, we see haunting flashbacks from Lou’s past where she assisted her father with cold murder. These scenes are bathed in red (blood, danger, anger … you get it) - the same red glow of a car parked near a ravine with the brakes on, or something more banal like a Coca Cola ad on a vending machine.
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Lou is evidently traumatised by her participation in these acts, and maintains a cold, distant front with her father. We believe, as she seems to, that she was coerced into the murders by her psychopathic father. She explains, to alleviate Jackie’s grief and maybe, just maybe, also remind herself, that Jackie is innocent for the murders she commits: JJ “deserved it” for his barbarity, and Lou’s father “made her do it” when it came to Daisy, Lou’s colleague at the gym who is gripped by an obsessive love for her and was unwittingly the only witness who could link her to JJ’s murder.
And that is perhaps the greatest deception the film pulls off for almost the entirety of its runtime. At the end, when Lou is faced with a seemingly dead body in the back of the car that turns out to be more alive that she thought, what does she do? With her father nowhere around her to persuade her to kill again, and with a victim that certainly doesn’t “deserve it” - she finishes the job.
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