The Neon Demon

Name: The Neon Demon
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Horror
Released: June 24, 2016
Duration: 118 min
Rating: 51
Cast: Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves

2016

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 462 Ratings

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4.4

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4.4	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 462 Ratings

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The Neon Demon

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Movie Details & Credits

Broad Green Pictures | Release Date: June 24, 2016 | R

Starring: Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves

Summary: When aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) 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.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 118 min

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Critic Reviews

100

The Telegraph Robbie Collin

May 20, 2016

When the film reaches its logical end point, Refn just keeps pushing, and eventually lands on a sequence so jaw-dropping...that all you can do is howl or cheer. Read full review

Britt Hayes

Jun 25, 2016

Set to an electrifying score by frequent Refn collaborator Cliff Martinez (which may be his best yet), The Neon Demon is as deceptive as shattered glass, with a brilliant beauty so mesmerizing that you don’t notice its murderously sharp edges until you’re bleeding all over the floor. Read full review

A.A. Dowd

Jun 22, 2016

Style doesn’t triumph over substance in The Neon Demon. It devours it. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

May 20, 2016

The Neon Demon is a tease. It starts off as a relatively scannable, user-friendly thriller, but it turns out to be a movie made by a macabre surrealist gross-out prankster. Read full review

Richard Roeper

Jun 23, 2016

For a film so aggressively intent on Big Shock Moments (cannibalism and lesbian necrophilia, anyone?), it’s more often stultifying and tedious than provocative. Read full review

John Bleasdale

May 20, 2016

The fact of the matter is that Refn has now become so predictably shocking that the truly shocking thing for him to do would be to make a film without attempting to shock. Read full review

Rex Reed

Jun 23, 2016

The Neon Demon, which was booed off the screen this year in Cannes, is about jealousy, murder and cannibalism in the Hollywood modeling industry. If it wasn’t so stupid and preposterous, I’d say see it for the laughs, but trust me when I say you’re on your own — and I mean it. Read full review

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User Reviews

ParkerFarron

Jun 24, 2016

"I don't want to be like them. They want to be like me."

My God, this was perfect. I was glued to the every frame of this. The visuals are bar none the best of the year and the musical score is heart poundingly beautiful and intense. All the performances were great, especially Elle"I don't want to be like them. They want to be like me."

My God, this was perfect. I was glued to the every frame of this. The visuals are bar none the best of the year and the musical score is heart poundingly beautiful and intense. All the performances were great, especially Elle Fanning as Jesse and Jena Malone as Ruby. This won't be for everyone and frankly after Only God Forgives I wasn't sure anything Refn did after that would be for me, but this fired on all cylinders and is my favorite film of the year so far.… Expand

6 of 82 users found this helpful676

Spangle

Aug 31, 2016

Shocking, disturbing, and audacious, The Neon Demon is a neon-drenched behemoth from director Nicolas Winding Refn that is truly a glorious masterpiece. Things really begin to hit the fan in the second half, but even then, the first half is just as equally brilliant. Together, they form aShocking, disturbing, and audacious, The Neon Demon is a neon-drenched behemoth from director Nicolas Winding Refn that is truly a glorious masterpiece. Things really begin to hit the fan in the second half, but even then, the first half is just as equally brilliant. Together, they form a disturbing look at the fashion industry. Undeniably a horror film, The Neon Demon leaves you cool and numb in the wake of its disturbing images of the industry. Refn expertly creates a parallel between the industry and what is portrayed on the screen, eliciting brilliant criticism on the industry and the way in which it destroys young girls, as well as the way in which these girls are victimized and corrupted along the way. Elle Fanning plays the lead role brilliantly, as the innocent, yet decidedly dangerously beautiful Jesse. The dialogue here is terrific, far surpassing many other films from the Danish director. The score from Cliff Martinez is filled with these synthy, creepy vibes that really wrap its tentacles around you and perfectly accent what is on the screen. The cinematography is incredible. From very cool mirror shots to lush looks at Los Angeles, the camera soaks in the neon goodness and is an absolute wonder. I cannot praise The Neon Demon enough. This illuminati-esque, hypnotic, and thoroughly violent and disturbing film from Nicolas Winding Refn could very well be categorized as a masterpiece.… Expand

1 of 17 users found this helpful116

Jugmonkey

Jun 28, 2016

Hypnotic.

Absolutely outstanding. Glam, beauty, some gore etc with amazing visuals and an intense soundtrack that I've had on repeat for days. This movie isn't going to appeal to everyone but I found it amazing. I saw a screening of it pre release and just saw it in the theater lastHypnotic.

Absolutely outstanding. Glam, beauty, some gore etc with amazing visuals and an intense soundtrack that I've had on repeat for days. This movie isn't going to appeal to everyone but I found it amazing. I saw a screening of it pre release and just saw it in the theater last weekend. See it on a big screen. It was outstanding on the big screen at the Hollywood Arclight Dome.

Abbey Lee scorches this movie and is just as much the star as Elle. Bella was great as well. Well done.

Going again next week.… Expand

2 of 18 users found this helpful216

foxgrove

Jul 26, 2016

Arrogantly, but perhaps not entirely undeserved, Nicolas Winding Refn stamps his initials all over the opening credits of ‘The Neon Demon, a stylish, flawed and intermittently stunning visual experience that hypnotises even as it frustrates. Refn’s achievement is almost totally due to hisArrogantly, but perhaps not entirely undeserved, Nicolas Winding Refn stamps his initials all over the opening credits of ‘The Neon Demon, a stylish, flawed and intermittently stunning visual experience that hypnotises even as it frustrates. Refn’s achievement is almost totally due to his precise and immaculate framing of each sequence and, indeed, each shot. Aided no end by knockout cinematography it all adds up to a fascinating watch as well as being a superb exercise in visual story telling. Admittedly as well as being enticing it is also baffling and there are more than a few longueurs (Fanning’s end of show cat walk being the most glaring example) that could have been excised along the way. Also the film has a couple of rather nasty and distasteful scenes within its framework, one of which involves a knife and the other a dead body, which will certainly alienate a few viewers. Refn’s direction is really better than the slight story deserves. Whereas ‘Drive’ employed a visual style to compliment the screenplay, ‘The Neon Demon’ demonstrates the exact reverse. It does, however, have a good and all-consuming final word about the fashion industry which does compliment most of what has gone before and is certainly not anti-climatic.
Technically the film is outstanding with kudos especially deserved in the area of costumes, make-up and sound. Cliff Martinez again provides yet another all-encompassing and vital score for a Refn film which contributes 100% to the overall impact… Expand

1 of 13 users found this helpful112

Panchogul

Apr 3, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. El Demonio Neón (2016)

Sinopsis:

Jesse, una cándida adolescente, viaja a L.A. con el objetivo de convertirse en una supermodelo. Su ascenso fulgurante y su pureza suscitan celos y codicia. Algunas chicas se rinden ante ella, otras están dispuestas a todo para robarle su belleza y, sin darse cuenta, se verá atrapada en un peligroso mundo del que no podrá escapar.

Opinión:

El título de la película y el poster me causaron cierta curiosidad y decidí darle un intento, visualmente es magnífica y a nivel auditivo también lo es, en esos dos aspectos es una experiencia divina, el trasfondo de la película trata sobre los estereotipos de belleza femenina y la bastarda envidia que la chicha nueva despierta en las demás mujeres de su entorno laboral y que poco a poco intentarán quitarle y absorber esas cualidades físicas para no ser opacadas ni quedar en el olvido.

No me gustó que los personajes fueran en exceso deliberadamente frívolos y mentecatos que contrastan de manera poco agradable con la naturaleza inocente y pura de la protagonista que incluso esta misma llega a comportarse de esa forma.

Promueve estereotipos muy negativos y dañinos tanto para las mujeres como para los hombres al exponer de manera implícita que la belleza física es lo único que importa y que si no la tienes debes acudir al bisturí; esto se hace mas explícito cuando una de las chicas dice "nadie ama su físico" y yo onda "pues así todo gordo y gelatinoso me quiero y me amo tal cual me veo".

Personalmente no recomiendo esta película a las personas que busquen perseguir una carrera de modelaje ya que expone ese mundo de forma muy negativa.

Valoración:

3 ⭐ de 5 ⭐… Expand

0 of 55 users found this helpful055

XV_

Mar 3, 2019

I really liked Drive and Only God Forgives, so I was hoping to watch something on that league but no, It looks and sounds fantastic but by the first half, those things also get old. Is not that is unwatchable but is plain boring, filled with cheap symbolism and "shocking" but uninteresting things.

1 of 60 users found this helpful159

AmadouIraklidis

Sep 28, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie is **** I mean, truly awful. Sickening to the core, from the content and to the end product.

Apparently the director of photography got the script and discussed with the director that she didn't like it. To which he replied that she must have gotten the fake script.

The director must have been lying, because this script must've been written while he was online shopping and scrolling through Netflix. This movie is what a toddler and a preteen would come up with if you asked them to tell you a scary story and gave them an hour to finish the idea.

And if he was telling the truth, I feel bad to think of whatever dreadful, flaming pile of you-know-what this "director" made anyone read in the supposed "fake script." Sounds more like something he came up with after the 10th person told him about how garbage his movie was going to be.

The one thing about this movie that was decent was the photography. Really stunning and unique shots, particularly at the beginning to draw in the viewer. This, coupled with the interesting parameter of the story, there was a lot of potential. At the outset this was around a 7, maybe an 8. Then there was a tiger inside of Jesse's room, for no reason, which was never explained. What the **** 6. Then one of the creepy models licked Jesse's blood out of jealousy. 5. Then Jesse became inexplicably obnoxious and insufferable, from one moment to the next. 4. Then Jesse's landlord rapes a 13 year old. Let that sink in. 3. Then the "OMG let's be best friends" lesbian had sex with a corpse. That isn't a joke, that really happened in this movie. 2. Then the weirdo, psychotic, loser models killed Jesse and ate her, and bathed in her blood like they were shooting a porno. 1. Then they went to a photo shoot, and one of the creepy losers vomited a whole eyeball and killed herself... and the other loser swallowed it whole. You can't make this stuff up, this really happened in the movie. 0

Then, for the last cherry on top, there was a dedication to someone called Liv before the credits roll. Really? Whoever Liv is, I feel sorry for her, because, unless she had a role in this movie, she did not deserve this. This movie is more like toxic waste than entertainment.

This movie is so bad, I believe I'm entitled to restitutions from everyone involved with this sham of a production. Mail me an apology and any and all checks to my address at the corner of "don't ever make another movie" and "you're awful at this."… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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