The Neon Demon

The Neon Demon is a 2016 arthouse horror film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Mary Laws, Polly Stenham, and Refn, and starring Elle Fanning. The plot follows an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and envy within the fashion industry. Supporting roles are played by Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves.

An international co-production between France, Denmark, and the United States, the film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the third consecutive film directed by Refn to do so, following Drive (2011) and Only God Forgives (2013). In the United States, the film was released theatrically on June 24, 2016 by Amazon Studios and Broad Green Pictures. It opened to polarized reviews with praise for Refn's direction, Malone and Fanning's performances, Martinez's score and particular praise for Braier's cinematography, with the screenplay and graphic content receiving criticism. It ultimately grossed $3.6 million against a production budget of $7.5 million.

Following the unexplained deaths of her parents, 16 year-old aspiring model Jesse has just moved from a small unnamed town in Georgia to Los Angeles. She meets photographer Dean, who does her first shoot, and makeup artist Ruby, who introduces fellow older models Gigi and Sarah, who are interested in her physical appearance and in her sexual experiences, which Jesse pretends to have had.

Jesse is signed by Roberta Hoffman, the owner of a modeling agency, who tells her to pretend that she is nineteen and refers her to a test shoot with notable photographer Jack McCarther.

That same evening, she goes out with Dean, who shows genuine affection for her, as a person. When she returns to her motel room, she finds it has been ravaged by a cougar, who got through the open balcony door. Hank, the lecherous motel owner, has her pay for the damage, though Dean covers it for her.

For the shoot the next day, McCarther has Jesse strip naked and rubs gold paint onto her body. The shoot is successful, and Gigi and Sarah envy Jesse's youth. Jesse goes to a casting call for fashion designer Robert Sarno where Sarah is also present. Sarno pays no attention to Sarah but is entranced by Jesse's beauty. Distraught, Sarah asks her how it feels to be the one everyone admires. Jesse admits, "It's everything," and Sarah lunges toward her. Jesse, pulling away, cuts her hand on a shard of glass. Sarah sucks the blood from Jesse's hand. Jesse rushes back to her motel and faints, hallucinating abstract imagery.

At Sarno's fashion show, Gigi talks to Jesse about cosmetic surgery. As Jesse is closing the show, she has hallucinations of abstract triangular shapes and reflections of herself. After the show, Jesse goes out with Dean to a bar. Sarno engages Dean in a conversation where he negatively contrasts Gigi's surgically-enhanced looks to Jesse's natural beauty and shares his belief that true physical beauty is the most valuable thing there is, outweighing whatever that person may have on the inside. Dean finds the conversation unpleasant and attempts to leave with Jesse, who refuses, having assumed a narcissistic persona.

Jesse has a nightmare of being forced by Hank to sexually swallow a knife. She wakes up to hear someone fidgeting with her door lock. She engages the deadbolt and hears the intruder break into the next room, assaulting the thirteen-year-old female occupant inside (Hank had made implications towards the girl in a previous scene). Terrified, she calls Ruby, who invites Jesse to her home. Ruby makes sexual advances towards Jesse, who immediately rejects them. Jesse reveals to Ruby that she is a virgin, whereupon Ruby attempts to sexually assault her, but is repelled by Jesse. Rejected, Ruby goes to her second job as a cosmetologist at a morgue and pleasures herself with a female corpse.