Love Lies Bleeding, a lurid 80s-set thriller premiering at Sundance, is the kind of eager, balls-to-the-wall midnight movie that hopes to keep you awake by cattle-prodding you with shocks, peppering formulaic neo-noir with enough Big Moments to curb any post-beer sleepiness. The raucous response it was met with over the weekend suggests that it might have done the trick for many, but such reliance can be exhausting rather than exhilarating. Without the attention-grabbing, X-rated theatrics, it’s ultimately just a film we’ve seen too many times before, struggling to justify why we’re seeing it again.
Director Rose Glass’s 2020 breakout, low-budget horror Saint Maud quickly developed an impassioned following, heralded as the arrival of a new genre visionary. I appreciated it more as proof of a first-time film-maker’s undeniable visual ability than anything else, gussying up an otherwise ho-hum retread of well-trodden territory.
