PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Southern belle Elle Fanning has finally come into her own. After spending years beneath older sister Dakota’s shadow, the 18-year-old Southern belle has finally stepped out into her own light. She is currently starring in Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, a horror thriller about the bloodthirsty fashion industry. Fanning plays Jesse, an aspiring model who moves to LA, only to find that the people who want her to succeed the most are the same ones who want to take everything from her once she makes it big.
Refn brought back Drive (2011) composer Cliff Martinez for The Neon Demon, who stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that the first half of the movie resembles, “A melodrama like Valley of the Dolls (1967), and the second half is like Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).” The film also stars Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves, Dexter’s Desmond Harrington, Mad Max: Fury Road’s (2015) Abbey Lee and Pride & Prejudice & Zombie’s (2016) Bella Heathcote as members of the elite fashion world that Jesse arrives in.
The director seems to have reigned himself in after the critically panned Only God Forgives (2013), at least as far as I can tell from the trailer. Slick and glossy like an airbrushed magazine ad, the angelic yet unsmiling face of Fanning flits by against harsh, clinical blues. Neon lights flash in between shots of spilling glitter, sex, a live puma and dripping blood. As I watch, I can’t help but think of the cold beauty of Black Swan (2010). If the trailer is any indication, The Neon Demon will be just as psychologically daunting and mind-bendingly surreal as the obsessive dance thriller.
The film itself is set to debut at the 69th Cannes Film Festival being held this year between May 11-22, and then is set to be released to the world sometime this June. Considering that The Neon Demon has already won a California On Location award for Location Team of the Year – Independent Feature Film, I have a feeling that this movie will be nothing short of visually stunning.
