The Neon DemonSociety is predisposed to cast a light upon that which is beautiful, desirable, enviable. But while the light is shone upon these golden idols, there must exist shadows. In these shadows dwell the demonic forces which propagate concepts of beauty at the expense of goodness. Beauty has often led mankind into its own destruction. Take Helen of Troy: a woman so beautiful, it is said her face launched a thousand ships, bringing devastation to an empire. The Neon Demon takes an equally cynical look at the destruction which obsession and vanity can lead people to embrace, a beguiling self-inflicted wound.
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The Neon Demon is a story of a young ingenue named Jesse (Elle Fanning), who finds herself in Los Angeles, quickly ascending in popularity as an up-and-coming fashion model. She emerges as if from nowhere. She tells Dean (Karl Glusman) the young man who discovered her (and believes in her being more than just a pretty face), that she grew up in Georgia, recalling wistful memories from her childhood days of looking up at the moon--which she envisioned as a giant eye looking at her. Her parents are implied to be deceased, or at least they are simply not relevant in Jesse's quest to soar among the upper echelon of runway divas. Jesse exudes wholesome goodness and her innocent aura and youthful, pristine loveliness enraptures the eyes of fashion photographers and designers, bringing her quick success. But Jesse makes rivals in the wake of her ascension, specifically in the form of two "veteran" models, the brutally icy Sarah (Abbey Lee), and the virtually plastic, smirking Gigi (Bella Heathcote). Jesse upstages and usurps the spotlight from these two "ugly" stepsisters in her rise, inadvertently or not. Ostensibly, Jesse has a friend in a young makeup artist named Ruby (Jena Malone), who has more than a yen for Jesse, and practices her fashion makeup skills on the corpses she prepares at a morgue. As Jesse is forced to confront the mounting pressure of her sought after profession, she discovers that her own vanity and desire for adoration consumes her, and whatever naivete she proclaimed about the innocence of her prettiness is flayed by the flensing knife of her own abyssal pride at her animal magnetism, the call of the euphoric worship of her person a compelling vortex drawing her down into the underworld.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, The Neon Demon is a haunting mix of melodrama and horror, what the film's composer, Cliff Martinez, described as a kind of cross between Valley of the Dolls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; I see it much like Black Swan by way of Bret Easton Ellis. The Neon Demon is filled from start to finish with eerie scenes both disturbing and mesmerizing, like staring into a portal leading into Hell itself, enticing you into its void. Many scenes have strikingly distinct lighting, giving each tableau such resonance that it remains imprinted on your psyche long after. The opening shot of the film is evocative of the tone of The Neon Demon: a fashion shoot where Jesse is posed as a beautiful, fashionable corpse, a "Vogue" crossed with "Fangoria" kind of vibe. It is the kind of shoot which makes one immediately cautious about the film, uneasy about any kind of trust The Neon Demon implores from us. Jesse is described as having a "deer in headlights" look, which is remarked as a positive feature, something photographers like Jack (Desmond Harrington) regard as a blessing. Jesse appears ill-prepared for her transition into the cutthroat world of fashion, where teens are disposable, and the so-called "creators" boast of their own powers while keeping models around like ornaments. The scene where Jack sizes up Jesse like a piece of meat, commands her to disrobe, then erotically spreads golden paint all over her speaks volumes about the way an industry dependent on presenting beauty in mere physical terms, idolizing transitory features, can infect and corrupt an audience incapable of seeing past the superficial. The Los Angeles Jesse has come to is itself not unlike a depraved underworld; Jesse's hotel in Pasadena is a veritable roach motel, save that instead of harmless vermin, Jesse finds a wild cougar in her room one night, feeding on some prey. The landlord Hank (Keanu Reeves), is a parasitic wretch, a keeper of souls and jailer--not unlike the mythical Hades--where new entries into the land of shattered dreams come to have their innocence plied from them. It is pretty obvious that Dean wishes to become involved with Jesse, as observed by Jesse's agent, Roberta Hoffman (Christina Hendricks), but professes that he sees more in her than mere beauty, a fact which a sardonic fashion designer throws in his face, citing that were she not pretty to begin with, he wouldn't have bothered. Is it that Jesse is worn down by the absolute lack of humanity in her new environment which leads her also down the path of self-absorption and pride, or is it that she begins to understand that in this world, she cannot soar in the clouds with the baggage of self-deception weighing her down, and the world really is as cruel and unfeeling as it seems.
The Neon Demon is a compelling horror film, one of many others in recent history in what is for sure a new wave of intense and stylized horror possessed of shocking directness, inducing dread and repulsion in novel ways. Fellow movies in this "horror sisterhood" include It Follows, Ex Machina, and The Witch. The title itself, The Neon Demon, combined with the highly synthesized musical score, evoke a kind of style reminiscent of the films of the 1980s, with music by bands like Tangerine Dream or Vangelis, and neo-noir classics of that period like Michael Mann's Thief or Manhunter. Nicolas Winding Refn's film also recalls the styles of other auteurs, such as Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, with the camera pulling out slowly from the static, shocking opening scene, or David Lynch's works (such as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), like the scene where Ruby invites Jesse to a party complete with a strobe-light driven performance art piece. The Neon Demon features an overwhelming amount of mirrors throughout the film, the ideal totem for a film all about image and vanity. How the audience sees Jesse and the models is more important to them than how they see themselves; for them, the image reflected in the mirror is more real than real. One could say that the mirror is the demon possessing the girls, evidenced by a scene where Jesse tries to comfort Sarah in the bathroom following her rejection at a photo shoot. After Sarah has broken a mirror, Jesse accidentally gets a piece of it stuck in her hand, and shortly thereafter she has a hallucinatory dream about an abstract triangle, which evolves into something she later emerges from like an unholy rebirth, the shackles of her innocence utterly discarded. Sarah also tries to presumably remove the shard, but strangely tries to suck on her wound, as though feeding on her blood to absorb her glorious power. This horrific trope is later revisited in The Neon Demon, leading the film into some gruesomely aberrant moments, recalling the dark legend of the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, reputed to be history's most notorious female serial killer, with legends persisting that she was a vampire. The irony here is that Sarah also observes that Jesse is like the sun, and the rest of them are trapped in winter; she also describes herself as a ghost, a shadow of her former glory as a model, now forgotten courtesy of Jesse's emergence.
In a way, Jesse also resembles the ingratiating and nearly universally-liked Eve Harrington from All About Eve, who also quickly rose to stardom by seizing on opportunities with her own natural talents, although by comparison, Jesse is far more likable...at least at first. But like Eve, Jesse is forced to lie to rise, unable to ascend with her integrity hanging around her neck like an albatross. Her first apparent falseness is the forging of her absentee parents' signature on a parental consent form, followed not long after by her coached deception about her age. These smaller lies expose the bigger one about entertainment as a whole: that it is all about illusion and deception, that honesty doesn't sell issues of "Cosmopolitan". As Ruby insinuates, people want to have their appetites aroused by the seduction of advertising and image. She talks of how lipstick colors have names either describing food or sex--ironically describing one called "Red Rum", which has other connotations when one recalls Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining. Ruby makes a point in this--and her occupation at the morgue--that people not only turn away from an honest portrayal of life and beauty, they will abjectly refuse it in favor of the illusion. People will starve themselves to look thin, put themselves under the knife to alter their bodies, sacrificing a literal pound of flesh to appear more desirable, in line with what popular culture demands. These masochistic efforts also expose a deeper fault in society, that we are so devoid of personality that image is forced to serve as a surrogate, and any means to avail that ulcerous vacuum of the spirit will be attempted by the desperate and by those who may look pretty as porcelain on the outside, but are cancerous beneath the skin.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling and hypnotic thriller, combining the gorgeousness and lavishness of fashion with the brutality and gore of a splatter horror film. Like a swaying cobra, The Neon Demon casts its glitter-infused spell over you, preparing to strike with ruthless venom.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, The Neon Demon is a haunting mix of melodrama and horror, what the film's composer, Cliff Martinez, described as a kind of cross between Valley of the Dolls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; I see it much like Black Swan by way of Bret Easton Ellis. The Neon Demon is filled from start to finish with eerie scenes both disturbing and mesmerizing, like staring into a portal leading into Hell itself, enticing you into its void. Many scenes have strikingly distinct lighting, giving each tableau such resonance that it remains imprinted on your psyche long after. The opening shot of the film is evocative of the tone of The Neon Demon: a fashion shoot where Jesse is posed as a beautiful, fashionable corpse, a "Vogue" crossed with "Fangoria" kind of vibe. It is the kind of shoot which makes one immediately cautious about the film, uneasy about any kind of trust The Neon Demon implores from us. Jesse is described as having a "deer in headlights" look, which is remarked as a positive feature, something photographers like Jack (Desmond Harrington) regard as a blessing. Jesse appears ill-prepared for her transition into the cutthroat world of fashion, where teens are disposable, and the so-called "creators" boast of their own powers while keeping models around like ornaments. The scene where Jack sizes up Jesse like a piece of meat, commands her to disrobe, then erotically spreads golden paint all over her speaks volumes about the way an industry dependent on presenting beauty in mere physical terms, idolizing transitory features, can infect and corrupt an audience incapable of seeing past the superficial. The Los Angeles Jesse has come to is itself not unlike a depraved underworld; Jesse's hotel in Pasadena is a veritable roach motel, save that instead of harmless vermin, Jesse finds a wild cougar in her room one night, feeding on some prey. The landlord Hank (Keanu Reeves), is a parasitic wretch, a keeper of souls and jailer--not unlike the mythical Hades--where new entries into the land of shattered dreams come to have their innocence plied from them. It is pretty obvious that Dean wishes to become involved with Jesse, as observed by Jesse's agent, Roberta Hoffman (Christina Hendricks), but professes that he sees more in her than mere beauty, a fact which a sardonic fashion designer throws in his face, citing that were she not pretty to begin with, he wouldn't have bothered. Is it that Jesse is worn down by the absolute lack of humanity in her new environment which leads her also down the path of self-absorption and pride, or is it that she begins to understand that in this world, she cannot soar in the clouds with the baggage of self-deception weighing her down, and the world really is as cruel and unfeeling as it seems.
The Neon Demon is a compelling horror film, one of many others in recent history in what is for sure a new wave of intense and stylized horror possessed of shocking directness, inducing dread and repulsion in novel ways. Fellow movies in this "horror sisterhood" include It Follows, Ex Machina, and The Witch. The title itself, The Neon Demon, combined with the highly synthesized musical score, evoke a kind of style reminiscent of the films of the 1980s, with music by bands like Tangerine Dream or Vangelis, and neo-noir classics of that period like Michael Mann's Thief or Manhunter. Nicolas Winding Refn's film also recalls the styles of other auteurs, such as Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, with the camera pulling out slowly from the static, shocking opening scene, or David Lynch's works (such as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), like the scene where Ruby invites Jesse to a party complete with a strobe-light driven performance art piece. The Neon Demon features an overwhelming amount of mirrors throughout the film, the ideal totem for a film all about image and vanity. How the audience sees Jesse and the models is more important to them than how they see themselves; for them, the image reflected in the mirror is more real than real. One could say that the mirror is the demon possessing the girls, evidenced by a scene where Jesse tries to comfort Sarah in the bathroom following her rejection at a photo shoot. After Sarah has broken a mirror, Jesse accidentally gets a piece of it stuck in her hand, and shortly thereafter she has a hallucinatory dream about an abstract triangle, which evolves into something she later emerges from like an unholy rebirth, the shackles of her innocence utterly discarded. Sarah also tries to presumably remove the shard, but strangely tries to suck on her wound, as though feeding on her blood to absorb her glorious power. This horrific trope is later revisited in The Neon Demon, leading the film into some gruesomely aberrant moments, recalling the dark legend of the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, reputed to be history's most notorious female serial killer, with legends persisting that she was a vampire. The irony here is that Sarah also observes that Jesse is like the sun, and the rest of them are trapped in winter; she also describes herself as a ghost, a shadow of her former glory as a model, now forgotten courtesy of Jesse's emergence.
In a way, Jesse also resembles the ingratiating and nearly universally-liked Eve Harrington from All About Eve, who also quickly rose to stardom by seizing on opportunities with her own natural talents, although by comparison, Jesse is far more likable...at least at first. But like Eve, Jesse is forced to lie to rise, unable to ascend with her integrity hanging around her neck like an albatross. Her first apparent falseness is the forging of her absentee parents' signature on a parental consent form, followed not long after by her coached deception about her age. These smaller lies expose the bigger one about entertainment as a whole: that it is all about illusion and deception, that honesty doesn't sell issues of "Cosmopolitan". As Ruby insinuates, people want to have their appetites aroused by the seduction of advertising and image. She talks of how lipstick colors have names either describing food or sex--ironically describing one called "Red Rum", which has other connotations when one recalls Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining. Ruby makes a point in this--and her occupation at the morgue--that people not only turn away from an honest portrayal of life and beauty, they will abjectly refuse it in favor of the illusion. People will starve themselves to look thin, put themselves under the knife to alter their bodies, sacrificing a literal pound of flesh to appear more desirable, in line with what popular culture demands. These masochistic efforts also expose a deeper fault in society, that we are so devoid of personality that image is forced to serve as a surrogate, and any means to avail that ulcerous vacuum of the spirit will be attempted by the desperate and by those who may look pretty as porcelain on the outside, but are cancerous beneath the skin.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling and hypnotic thriller, combining the gorgeousness and lavishness of fashion with the brutality and gore of a splatter horror film. Like a swaying cobra, The Neon Demon casts its glitter-infused spell over you, preparing to strike with ruthless venom.