After earning acclaim for her 2019 directorial debut Saint Maud, Rose Glass has reteamed with A24 for the bodybuilding lesbian thriller Love Lies Bleeding. Starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris, it’s set to world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in just about a month and now A24 has debuted the muscular first trailer ahead of both the premiere and a March 8 release date.
Here’s the synopsis: “From Director Rose Glass comes an electric new love story; reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.”
“In the original script there were a lot of Saint Maud kind of moments. Like body horror, that kind of thing. We kind of had to consolidate it I guess a little bit more,” O’Brian told Collider earlier this year. “I’m really excited to see what the final edit looks like, but I think it’s more focused on the love story and more focused on the thriller aspect. So it’s a love thriller, kind of Western. It’s shot like a Western. It’s so unique, so interesting, and only Rose’s brain could have come up with it. She’s got this unparalleled imagination. [She] has, I think, a really, really unique sense of storytelling. [She] comes up with stories that just aren’t told, or if they are, are told in a really, really unique way. It was really great to work with her and getting to do a film like that where it’s not all about action, it’s not all about kicking butt, or whatever. It’s like a really heart wrenching story and I actually felt like I got to connect to a character more than I ever have before. One second you’re crying, you’re laughing. I think it’s just a really full fledged beautiful story and I’m super, super excited for people to see it.”
See the trailer below.
Love Lies Bleeding premieres at Sundance 2024 and opens on March 8, 2024.