Mainstream Fare #12 – Love Lies Bleeding

Good morning everyone,

Welcome back to There She Grows! Today’s review of mainstream fare will cover “Love Lies Bleeding.” Rose Glass (director and writer of religious horror “Saint Maud”) directed this production and co-wrote it with Weronika Tofilska. A24 co-produced and distributed the film. A24 is a relatively new (founded in August 2012) film and television distribution and production company based in New York. They have distributed several well-received horror films in America including “Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” and “Talk to Me.” A24 also released dramas like “Moonlight” and “The Iron Claw” plus science fiction such as “Ex Machina” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The company has a reputation for thoughtful movies.

CONTENT WARNING: Love Lies Bleeding includes graphic scenes of bloody violence, dead bodies, murder, and physical torture. Reader discretion is advised.

When the Love Lies Bleeding trailer was uploaded to YouTube on December 19, 2023 it featured a few seconds of female muscle growth (FMG). That all too short transformation piqued the interest of giantess fans and that interest quickly spurred the creation of a thread on the Giantess City forum:

Other folks tweeted and confirmed that the production would interest FMG and giantess fans:

A24 screened this film at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20th of this year. American theatrical release followed in early March, but not overseas. Folks outside the U.S. (like reviewers in Japan to give a completely random example 😉 ) were unable to (legally) watch Love Lies Bleeding until the video on demand (VOD) release in late April.

Now that it is available online what is it about?

Love Lies Bleeding takes place in New Mexico during the late 1980s. Its story focuses on Kristen Stewart as Louise “Lou,” a gym manager, and Katy O’Brian as Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder hoping to win an International Fitness and BodyBuilding Federation (IFBB) championship in Las Vegas.

Kristen Stewart (seen below on the left) is most famous for her leading role, alongside Robert Pattinson, in the supernatural romance “Twilight” in 2008, but she had already worked as a child actor in Hollywood. She has appeared in a number of films since the Twilight franchise’s finale, “Breaking Dawn Part 2,” was released in 2012.

In contrast, Katy O’Brian (above right) has a shorter filmography. She had worked as a police officer in Carmel, Indiana, for seven years before turning to acting. Of interest to fans of insect-themed size-changing heroes, Katy played Jentorra in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

Ed Harris played Lou Langston Sr., Lou’s father and a businessman with a dark past. Ed has appeared in a large number of films with his performances in “The Abyss” and “Enemy at the Gates” being two of my favorites.

Jackie and Lou fall for each other immediately and enjoy a passionate relationship for a time. They engage in steamy soft-core (this is mainstream fare after all) sex scenes. Kudos to the leads for performing cunnilingus, masturbation, and toe sucking scenes on camera. Those scenes were created for women who like women, not just for men who like to watch. Not for nothing, but cinema showcasing a muscular and powerful lesbian is rare.

Conflict disrupts the women’s relationship when Lou’s brother-in-law viciously beats Lou’s sister Beth. Brutal payback and gory reprisal follow and strain the developing bond between Jackie and Lou. That’s about all the plot that I want to describe. Best not to spoil everything.

Happily, I can confirm that there was indeed FMG as was shown in the trailer. There were multiple, albeit short, instances of swelling muscles after Jackie took steroids.

Despite many instances of Jackie growing larger, those changes did not appear to be real. Jackie’s body did not visibly change. Gym members did not amaze at Jackie’s new developments. Instead, she looked the same as always. Thus, my opinion is that the bulging muscles and size increases did not actually happen in the movie’s universe, but were only steroid usage creating visions.

Please do not misunderstand me. Jackie was jacked! (Apologies for the awful pun…) Actress Katy O’Brian has an impressive physique. For proof check out her big biceps in the following tweet:

However, to my non-bodybuilder eyes, Jackie’s body did not appreciably change. It was not as if Jackie was initially bone-thin and then built an ever more impressive physique after successive injections. She started buff and ended equally buff.

Beyond imaginary FMG, there was even a brief giantess scene. The movie depicted Jackie growing to Nancy Archer’s proportions, meaning in the ballpark of 50 feet tall.

Those FMG and giantess bits were executed well, but I must note that Jackie repeatedly experienced hallucinations, presumably symptoms of steroid-induced psychosis. At one point she saw someone who was not there and then she imagined a bizarre vomiting. All of that is to say that the changes were only in Jackie’s head.

So, don’t rent or purchase if you’re only looking for muscle growth or giantesses. Instead, understand that this is a romance between two ladies tangled up in a number of serious felonies. If the idea of violent lesbians falling in love is appealing then you should like this movie.

This was also morally complex. The main characters hurt evildoers who were unambiguously guilty of serious misdeeds and deserved punishment. Which is to claim that in my experience most viewers will not feel sympathy for a wife beater. But the main characters also hurt people who perhaps did not warrant such severe punishment.

Characters made bad judgements that reduced the chances of achieving their stated goals, but those mistakes felt understandable. We all know people that do not fully consider the implications of their actions causing problems for themselves and others. Nonetheless, motivations were clear and plausible.

Overall, I recommend Love Lies Bleeding, but with a warning that it is not for the squeamish. Along with the expected violence in a criminal narrative there was an early scene of a person unclogging a feces-filled toilet with their hands. Toward the end one man ate a live horned beetle. Additionally, I must repeat that the giantess scene was brief. So, if a potential customer is only interested in that part they can save their money and watch that particular scene at Giantess City or YouTube.

Personally, I am in no hurry to rewatch this, but am glad that I saw it once. One can foresee this garnering a strong following of viewers wanting to watch a muscular lesbian make love.

That’s it for today. Think I’ll cover H2O Giantess TV in early June for the next review. Until then, keep growing!

This review was written by SolomonG and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.

All Rights Reserved.