Elle Fanning’s Extremely R-Rated Team-Up With Keanu Reeves Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

By Robert Scucci
| Published 47 seconds ago

Keanu Reeves is mostly known for taking on lead roles in science fiction and action epics, but you may not know that he played a supporting role in 2016’s The Neon Demon, starring Elle Fanning. This psychological horror film can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video and is not for the faint of heart.

Though the reviews for The Neon Demon were polarizing, fans of director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) have praised the film for its style, execution, and stark criticism of the fashion industry.

A Warning About The World Of Beauty

The Neon Demon is a cautionary tale about the cut-throat nature of the runway world, and puts Elle Fanning’s Jesse in the middle of a tumultuous relationship with her peers and the modeling agency she finds herself working for. Jessie is known for her natural beauty, but her rise to prominence is overshadowed by older models who are jealous of her beauty.

After an altercation at a casting call with an older model named Sarah, who cuts Jesse’s hand and sucks on her blood, Jess spirals into vivid hallucinations and succumbs to her underlying narcissistic personality.

During one such hallucination, Keanu Reeves’ Hank character, who owns the motel where she’s staying, forces her to sexually swallow a knife. Upon waking up from her nightmarish vision, she realizes that somebody is actually breaking into the neighboring room, which sets off a chain of events that eventually leads to her seeking safety at her makeup artist Ruby’s home.

The Neon Demon continues to churn your stomach when Ruby, whose advances were turned down by Jesse, ends up enjoying herself with a corpse at a night job as a morgue cosmetologist.

Sinister Below The Surface

The Neon Demon places a strong emphasis on the conniving nature of its subjects, who live in a world that’s superficial on the surface but sinister beneath its outermost layer of skin. We witness a form of storytelling that’s visually disturbing, but so visceral in its delivery that we can’t help but look away. If you think about what’s trying to be accomplished, it makes sense that bloodsucking and backstabbing go hand in hand with the highly competitive nature of the fashion industry that’s being illustrated in this film.

Some films are meant to be watched for their storytelling, but The Neon Demon has been referred to as a thrilling visual experience rather than a traditional movie. A story is clearly being told, but the way it’s delivered doesn’t follow traditional filmmaking conventions. For this very reason, The Neon Demon‘s reception is all over the place; your enjoyment of this film will likely fall into “all or nothing” territory.

Critical And Audience Reaction To The Neon Demon

Commercially, The Neon Demon did not fare well, grossing only $3.4 million against a reported budget of $7 million. On the critical front, the film currently has a 59 percent critical score, compared with an audience score of 51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But when you look at the reviews, it’s clear there is a very specific audience in mind for The Neon Demon, which explains why they’re so polarizing.

Writer Natasha Stagg speculated that The Neon Demon suffered at the box office because its subject matter was too close to home for its demographic. In other words, if an aspiring model watched this film, they might have a negative reaction because it highlights a heightened version of a toxic work environment that may not ring true in the real world, yet still exposes the dark side of a particular industry.

The film’s positive reviews tell an entirely different story. Critics described The Neon Demon as a “hypnotic fever dream” full of hidden messages, moments of genius, and madness. Among those reviews, many critics have stated that The Neon Demon is Refn’s best movie and worthy of your consideration.

If you take The Neon Demon at face value, you might not be ready to explore the sinister underbelly of the fashion industry that’s being illustrated by its storytelling. But if you’re willing to immerse yourself in the world Refn created, you’ll witness an exercise in experimental filmmaking that may have flown under your radar upon its initial release.