The Neon Demon pulls off the unique feat of being both boring and bravura all at once. Like the world it depicts, it’s a feast for the eyes but little else.
A shallow, slow-burn horror that takes an age to get to the strong meat but looks good doing it.
It is elegant and juvenile, shocking and satirical by turns.
Suspend your thirst for narrative and lose yourself in eye-popping cinematography.
A second viewing accentuates the depraved menace of Nicolas Winding Refn’s thriller, and Elle Fanning’s excellent performance as a girl devoured by beauty.
The Neon Demon looks stunning and is alluring enough to keep you watching until director Nicolas Winding Refn decides to go for broke with necrophilic sex and eye-popping horror. Not for the faint-hearted.
Driven by the same guilty pleasures that have long underpinned Refn’s work, making him both the darling and bête noir of auteur arthouse cinema – the beauty and the beast.
Nicolas Winding Refn & Elle Fanning interview: The fantasy and familiarity of The Neon Demon's vicious womanhood
Inside the weird world of The Neon Demon
General release. Check local listings for show times.