Kristen Stewart stars in deadly lesbian bodybuilding thriller

Rihanna’s song “We Found Love” could be about the film “Love Lies Blooding,” for there are few places more hopeless than the sleazy desert setting of Kristen Stewart’s twisted romance.

The A24 movie premiered Saturday night at Sundance, which is the perfect launching spot for the grungy story of two lesbians who meet during a fist fight and become obsessed not only with each other, but muscle-enhancing, brain-warping steroids as well. 

Stewart — as faraway from Princess Diana’s lamb sweater as she could possibly be — plays gruff Lou, the front-desk attendant of a disgusting roadside gym in the crummy town she grew up in. 

For a snapshot of this woman, we are first introduced to Lou as she is unclogging a toilet — with her bare hands. 

Plungers are apparently a luxury in 1989 New Mexico. 

She’s estranged from her father Lou Sr. (A sinewy Ed Harris, who’s bald on top but with long hair on the side like Riff Raff from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”), who owns a popular shooting range and is secretly a local crime boss.

Loser Lou cheers up when Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a penniless hitchhiker, arrives in town on her way to fulfill her dream of winning a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. 

Jackie needs some barbells and, more importantly, a place to spend the night.

Overcome with lust, Lou generously offers the buff beauty a bed and some steroids — which Jackie has never used — and so begins a romance for the ages. Well, ages 17 and up.

The entertaining movie from director Rose Glass, whose first feature was “Saint Maud,” is unsparing in its graphic depictions of violence, abuse and extreme aspects of the body. Many will find all of that stuff gratuitous, but it fleshes out this unsavory world and ratchets up the plot’s tension.

Be warned, though: A lot of needles go into a lot of veins, a handful of people are shot point blank, and there’s one variation on a sex act that you don’t often witness while clutching Twizzlers.

Also, in the manner of a monster-movie, Glass includes short fantasy sequences of Jackie’s muscles unnaturally bulging like she’s the Hulk. For most of the runtime, they happily reminded me of Natalie Portman’s grotesque transition to poultry at the end of “Black Swan.”  

These artsy flourishes prevent “Love Lies Bleeding” from becoming any old small-town-secrets movie or corruption thriller, even though it is essentially both. 

Nice guy Dave Franco plays against type as JJ, the wife-beating husband of Lou’s sister, Beth (Jena Malone), and their stormy marriage threatens to blow up Lou and Jackie’s lives. 

I feel bad bringing up “Twilight” now that Stewart has been an Oscar nominee, however we first learned in the vampire saga that the actress does infatuation very well. She effortlessly gives off an “I’d die without you” aura, and there is a tractor-beam power in her stares. 

Behind O’Brian’s wild eyes, meanwhile, is a person who could either kiss you or brutally stab you to death. Her Jackie is a runaway train of a performance.

After you get past a few ick moments, the movie becomes a fun thrill-ride largely absent of depth. You could go looking for it, I suppose. Sundance audiences love a message they agree with. The main characters are gay. There’s misogyny, drugs, spousal abuse, and misbehaving law enforcement. But they all add up to a gripping story — not a Ted Talk.

I do wish the climax worked better. Glass’ film properly builds to what is meant to be a towering finish, but once it arrives the image is too fee-fi-fo-fum-funny. 

But a little slip-up is not enough to rob us of our enjoyment of a truck-stop Kristen Stewart and some diversionary murder and madness.