The Neon Demon
Broad Green Pictures | Release Date: June 24, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
17
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 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
88
Philadelphia InquirerJun 24, 2016
Portrayed by a mesmerizing Elle Fanning (Maleficent, Trumbo) in a magnificent, heart-stopping star turn. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyJun 23, 2016
The Neon Demon’s going to frustrate anyone who goes in looking for a conventional film or a thriller that has any interest in actually scaring you. This is a ride, a carefully crafted experience, and it is precisely because it is so immersive and controlled that I would recommend it. Read full review
83
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanJun 22, 2016
This is a film predicated on voyeurism, and while it’s arguably another big ol’ starefest from Refn, the viewer’s patience is earned with unquestionable tension made all the more palpable by its troubled protagonist. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 20, 2016
Spectacular, gross and delicious (so unsavory it’s almost sweet), the film is more proof of Refn’s mastery of his trash aesthetic and more fun than anything this indulgent and empty-headed has any right to be. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushBritt HayesJun 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
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 23, 2016
Languorously paced and literally dressed to kill, the movie is a corrosive attack on beauty — or at least our soulless, corporatized definition of the term — but it is also, above all else, a hypnotically beautiful object. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 22, 2016
If you want a movie that eviscerates “The Hunger” and eats its bloody insides while daring you to look away, here it is. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJun 22, 2016
He's like the bizarro version of Wes Anderson’s same meticulous attention to detail, but while you can tell Anderson wants to entertain you with a story, Refn is clearly more interested in mood and highly stylized provocation. With The Neon Demon, he more or less succeeds. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 23, 2016
The Neon Demon is a voluptuous provocation, a stylish free-fall down a gonzo rabbit hole that is as entrancing as it is maddening. Here is a rarity in this season of summer movie doldrums: A film that is guaranteed to elicit strong reactions. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 22, 2016
Style doesn’t triumph over substance in The Neon Demon. It devours it. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 20, 2016
The Neon Demon isn’t much of movie, at least if you’re looking for an actual story. Nor is it a moralistic fable about the emptiness of Hollywood—if anything, it’s a winking mockery of that sort of thing. But whatever the heck it is, it throws off a chilly, pleasurable sheen. This is visual hard candy. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 20, 2016
While always an amusingly twisted ride, The Neon Demon is marred by pensive stares and monotone monologues about superficial desires that drag on, and on. Fortunately, Refn treasures shock value over all else, and his movie delivers on that promise with a depraved third act. Read full review
64
The VergeTasha RobinsonJun 25, 2016
The heavy threat of sexual assault, physical consumption, and predatory control hangs over the film's treacherous first hour, but once the threat resolves, Neon Demon loses its tension and its power, and then just keeps going. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 23, 2016
Characters only exist as empty archetypal vessels and some of the wackier elements are laughably campy, but Refn’s sumptuous visuals and disco-synth score help give Neon Demon undeniably sinister style. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJun 23, 2016
The Neon Demon only works when Refn finds the right middle ground between obliquely hinting at and explicitly spelling out what his movie's about. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamJul 4, 2016
A shallow, slow-burn horror that takes an age to get to the strong meat but looks good doing it. Read full review
60
Village VoiceApril WolfeJun 21, 2016
Whether or not you connect with Refn's brand of over-the-top violence, you can't deny that his attention to color, texture, and music is nearly unmatched by other directors working today. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerJun 20, 2016
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. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 20, 2016
When Fanning is off screen, we are marooned in a fashion shoot in a hell of silliness. Yet her star quality gives The Neon Demon what substance it has, and Refn’s film-making has self-belief and panache. Take it or leave it. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 20, 2016
There's little humour, and strip away the styling and what it has to say about fashion has been said a thousand times before. But there's a mesmerising strangeness to Refn's vision that can't be denied, and Fanning does an especially good job of portraying innocence lost in the belly of the fashion beast. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 28, 2016
Refn’s skewering of this empire of awfulness is undercut by his plodding, portentous pacing. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 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
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoJun 23, 2016
Elle Fanning is impeccably cast as Jesse, a quiet, sweet-natured ingénue shuttling between sketchy photo shoots and her clichéd newcomer’s digs in a seedy Pasadena motel. Read full review
50
TheWrapRobert AbeleJun 23, 2016
The polished assuredness under which Refn operates is considerable, and even appealing, and yet there’s always one element in any given scene — a music cue, a banal sound choice, a shot held until it screams “look at me” — that breaks the mood. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 23, 2016
The narratively challenged film seems conflicted: It critiques our obsession with models and beauty and style, even as it obsesses about those very same things. There is a lot of flash, but little substance. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSam C. MacJun 2, 2016
The simmering insinuations of Nicolas Winding Refn's film eventually flower into full-on exploitation. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 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
50
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 20, 2016
Refn’s gifts as a visual stylist are employed to arresting effect - there’s a luxuriant use of colour which evokes the work of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin. But peel back the glossy, overly groomed surface and there is not a lot of substance underneath. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 23, 2016
The film is visually striking, even if the images don’t always make sense. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 20, 2016
By the end of the movie, Refn has toyed with cannibalism, lesbian necrophilia, the egestion of an eyeball, and other minor sports, all of them filmed in lavish taste. It’s enough to make you reflect longingly on the Agatha Christie drama that he made for British TV in 2007. Say what you like about Miss Marple, at least she merely questioned her suspects. She didn’t eat them for tea. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 20, 2016
The intended metaphors and commentary about the interchangeability and disposability of bodies are entirely clear, although from the evidence it would appear that Refn is perhaps even more entranced by the surface glamour of the world he so voluptuously depicts than he is repelled by it. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 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
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJun 23, 2016
There remains a nasty whiff here of a movie that is trotting out lesbian love interests and clawing cat fights for male titillation. With fashion taking the place of ballet, The Neon Demon may well prove controversial in a "Black Swan" kind of way, offering a love-it-or-hate-it debate over the appeal of its melodrama versus the politics of its social critique. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJun 23, 2016
It’s pretty. It’s empty. It’s pretty empty. Read full review
38
New York PostSara StewartJun 23, 2016
It’s too bad there’s already a movie out this week called “The Shallows”; it would work so perfectly for the new film from Nicholas Winding Refn (“Drive”). Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 23, 2016
What I can't buy is that Refn has made a movie this lifeless and devoid of human interest. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyKevin P. SullivanJun 23, 2016
The dialogue, most of which is stilted philosophy about femininity and beauty, sounds like something your freshman-year roommate said and you learned to ignore. Read full review
30
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJun 23, 2016
The Neon Demon is hot garbage that dares you to call it offensive. In addition, it’s offensive. Read full review
30
New York Daily NewsEdward DouglasJun 22, 2016
Presumed to be Nicolas Refn's foray into the horror genre, but apparently, no one bothered to tell the filmmaker that. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 23, 2016
If Refn is trying to skewer our cultural fixation with youth and good looks, his blade isn’t up to the task. The Neon Demon attacks, but indiscriminately. It’s sharp-looking but dull, hacking and plunging every which way, yet drawing no real blood. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 23, 2016
What truly makes The Neon Demon frustrating is Refn's undeniable talent for arresting images. His color schemes and framing make each second fascinating to observe, even when the dialogue is stultifying. Read full review
25
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 20, 2016
The director has set out to make the most repellently misogynistic film imaginable, yet he’s disguised it as a postmodern feminist satire. By shattering every possible taboo, the film is supposed to be an attack against the very thing it represents. Really, though, any semblance of commentary is simply a posture for Winding Refn to cover his ass. Read full review
0
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 25, 2016
Horror fans will be so bored by the first 90 minutes that they will have either walked out or fallen into a coma by the time the blood starts flowing. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedJun 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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