The erotic movies and thrillers that inspired the making of ‘Love Lies Bleeding’
Ever since the rural horror flick Saint Maud arrived in cinemas back in 2019, British filmmaker Rose Glass has been a key fixture at the very top of the directorial hierarchy, sitting right alongside Lynne Ramsay, Clio Barnard and Andrea Arnold. A slow, subtle piece of symbolic filmmaking, if Saint Maud is anything to go by, Rose Glass’ follow-up, Love Lies Bleeding, will be one of 2024’s best movies.
Where Saint Maud was an indie hit set in rural Wales, telling the story of a pious nurse determined to save the soul of the woman she’s looking after, with a humble cast to match that merely included the likes of Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle. Love Lies Bleeding looks to be a step up in more ways than one, with Hollywood star Kristen Stewart leading the line alongside Ed Harris, Dave Franco and Katy O Brian.
An erotic, dream-like American odyssey that borders the line between reality and fantasy, the film tells the story of a gym manager who falls in love with a bodybuilder while the latter is on her way to a Las Vegas competition. The pair quickly go from tender romance to criminal acts of violence, with Glass creating a surreal phantasmagorical vision of the country in the process.
With this being considered, her picks for the movies that inspired the making of Love Lies Bleeding shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. For example, the mysterious erotic horror of the visually stunning 2002 Shinya Tsukamoto film A Snake of June was drawn from, with its surreal essence also being shared in Glass’ film, which, admittedly, has a more defined narrative structure.
Elsewhere, with Love Lies Bleeding being a provocative erotic thriller, naturally, it looked to the very best in the genre for inspiration, namely David Cronenberg’s 1996 film Crash and Liliana Cavani’s 1974 classic The Night Porter. While Cronenberg’s film is notorious for suggesting a link between physical harm and sexual rejuvenation, the sadomasochistic obsession of The Night Porter is working on a similar level, with the juices created by squeezing both films funnelling neatly down into the process of Love Lies Bleeding.
1977’s Saturday Night Fever and Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 flop Showgirls are the remaining two films to grace Glass’ list, with the pair sharing more than it seems on the surface. While both seem like joyous expressions of identity, they are actually a comment on how power and ambition can control sexuality, with the pair of films being dark, gritty visions of life beyond the limelight.
Take a look at the full list of the movies that inspired Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding below.
The movies that inspired Love Lies Bleeding:
- Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996)
- The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974)
- Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)
- Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)
- A Snake of June (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2002)
