During a season when it seems each movie is bigger, dumber, and emptier than the next, it makes you appreciate the films that are moving to their own unique beat. And certainly, there will be nothing else this month — or maybe this year — like Nicolas Winding Refn‘s bloody, glossy, fashion-world flick, “The Neon Demon.”
“It’s as much a horror movie as ‘Drive‘ was a getaway film,” the director told the Financial Times about his new movie that follows a young woman through an envy filled Los Angeles. “Sure, there are horrific elements in it. But I thought it could be fun making something that would start with horror movie DNA and then see what would happen. I got interested in other things along the way, things that grabbed our attention — both of us, I feel. And we just went with that instead.”
The result is a movie that was jeered at Cannes, but the film’s star, Elle Fanning, says there is a very deliberate attempt to hoodwink the audience before they see the picture. “People should be surprised. We’re doing it in a very tricky way, where we’re trying to get people to think it’s one thing when it’s not. So it’ll be neat to see if people fall for it or not,” she said.
“The Neon Demon” opens on June 24th.
