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
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
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