The Neon Demon poster

The Neon Demon (2016)

Film · 1h 58m · Rated R

Horror, Thriller

An aspiring model's beauty becomes a surreal, chilling obsession for those who crave her youth.

Bleak and campy. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Prime Video.

The Neon Demon parents guide

For an R, this one goes further: strong sex and nudity. Beyond that, a few tense moments and a jolt or two.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
Graphic gore
Blood and wounds shown clearly.
Violence
Strong violence
Violence is frequent or intense.
Sex and nudity
Strong
Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is The Neon Demon scary?
Only a little. The Neon Demon has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is The Neon Demon?
Graphic gore and strong violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
What is The Neon Demon rated, and is it OK for kids?
Rated R, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, strong violence, and some strong language. Not one for kids.

What is The Neon Demon about?

When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves the ending open to interpretation.

Cast and crew

Directed byNicolas Winding Refn
StarringElle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington

More like The Neon Demon

The Neon Demon is on our Horror, not scary; and Horror on Prime Video lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Weird and surreal and Late night.

Five more like The Neon Demon

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.