The Neon Demon
2016 · Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Original language: English
- horror
- thriller
The story
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
What it’s like
Saturated neon pink, electric blue and cold white light wash over every frame, with the Los Angeles night rendered as glowing haze and hard shadow. Director Nicolas Winding Refn holds on symmetrical, slow-moving compositions, long static shots of sterile rooms and mirrored corridors, and punctuates them with abrupt, hypnotic stillness. A throbbing synth score by Cliff Martinez pulses beneath near-silence, so the mood feels dreamlike and unsettling rather than kinetic. Its vibe is glossy, cold and dread-soaked, a surreal nightmare of vanity and predation. Violence is sudden and graphic in a few moments, including a bloody, brutal scene, and there is strong sexual content, nudity and a deeply disturbing necrophilic undertone; the horror lands through atmosphere and unease more than constant gore. It suits a late night alone when you want to be unsettled by a stylized, arty thriller. It is for viewers who want art-house horror, visual provocation and an uncompromising, hypnotic cold open to the dark side of beauty culture.
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