I just watched this movie yesterday, and I do deeply regret it. However, I decided to write a post about it because it did get me thinking and in reality I believe that the essence of the movie may not be far from the truth. That said, I would recommend only to read reviews of the movie and I would strongly advise against watching that movie as it may traumatize you for life. Seriously. I thought it was a sci-fi movie but in reality it is a horror movie.
When I started to watch Neon Demon, I had not watched any movie trailers. However, from the title I had expected (and hoped) the movie would be something of a reboot of a cult classic, Liquid Sky (1982), which by the way was a pretty good movie, although not without its major faults and twisted depravity itself. Liquid Sky is about an alien who comes to earth and looks like a human. This alien goes around eating people to get the chemicals in the brain that are similar to heroine, which it needs to live. Sounds gross but there really wasn’t any gore in Liquid Sky – much unlike Neon Demon which has way too much of it.
Liquid Sky has its flaws however, with rampant sexual depravity being one of its greatest faults. Because of this, I would also not recommend to watch that movie. However, the sci-fi premise of the movie made it a pretty good movie, if you can get past the depravity. Because of this, throughout the entire movie of Neon Demon, I kept waiting for the protagonist – or anyone for that matter – to turn into an alien or for something supernatural to happen.
However, this never came. The movie although with a couple weird scenes that make zero sense does not once actually introduce any sort of supernatural element. Rather, it substitutes the supernatural for even greater depravity that Liquid Sky. In many ways, in fact it does mirror Liquid Sky to several extents – except instead of the premise being acquiring brain chemicals that are similar to heroine like Liquid Sky, instead Neon Demon’s premise is regarding natural beauty.
The premise of Neon Demon is not at all the problem with the movie. In fact, that is the very premise that I am saying really does make a lot of sense when you think about it. The problem with Neon Demon is rather that extreme and unimaginable depravity – so horrible that I had to look away from the TV screen and shield my eyes through several screens so as to not traumatize myself with the extreme depravity, and even fast forward through some scenes because there was no point of watching nasty things like necrophilia, which it is unbelievable they put on screen. Fortunately I saw that coming and fast-forwarded past the whole scene.
The utter depravity of Neon Demon is so bad it in fact reminds me of a movie that I consider to be one of the worst movies of all time – a movie that has a scene that will traumatize me for the rest of my life, having a photographic memory. This movie is Hostel 2, a movie I greatly regret watching. And that is an understatement. The horror is not scary, it is just so utterly nasty and depraved that it could quite literally drive some people insane. I really mean literally. And Neon Demon has some scenes that are just about as bad if not worse, so that is really saying something.
With ultra nasty scenes like bathing in the blood and literally eating her, the scene of committing necrophilia, and closing with the ultra nasty scene of one of them vomiting up the eyeball and then another eating the eyeball and the first stabs herself to death, it’s no wonder that during viewing the audience literally booed the screening. It is repulsive, and someone who can write a movie like this should really be on an FBI watch list because there is a high probability there are literally skeletons in his closet or severed heads in his refrigerator. You don’t make a movie like this unless you are literally clinically insane.
That said, something intriguing about this is that the movie actually may not be far from the truth. Society has become sick, twisted, and depraved, placing a strong and extreme value on beauty and the face-value of people. Although in reality people won’t literally eat someone else’s beauty and literally bathe in their blood, metaphorically it is really not far off from the truth. This is even more true considering that the movie is set in southern California in Los Angeles, and this is truly the mentality there. In fact if people thought that literally eating people who were more beautiful than them and bathing in their blood would actually make them more beautiful, I bet some people really would do that.
That’s not saying that is what the movie intended to say however – I do think the movie was saying it metaphorically, and this is, shockingly for many, very close to reality. Especially in the ultra-shallow, dog-eat-dog environment of southern California and Los Angeles, and Hollywood, combined with the even greater shallowness and cutthroat (pun intended?) of the high fashion world, which was also the setting of the movie, metaphorically, this is exactly how people are behaving. Rampant sexual depravity, anything to get ahead, kill your competition, and destroy anything better or more beautiful than you. That is truly how it is. And it may in fact take such an utterly twisted and depraved movie in order to truly mirror the essence of the real social culture of both Los Angeles and the high fashion (and movie) industry.
Also, it is not just the depravity of horror that is reflective of the horrifying truth of reality, but also all the other elements of the movie: the seedy hotel room – LA is very unsafe and the seediness of the hotel room is a direct reflection of the real seediness of the entire city of Los Angeles; the objectification of women; the ideology of liberals and fashionistas; the shallow and depraved mindset of the photographers and managers; the disillusionment of those who have been in the city for very long; and the corruption of anything good.
So despite the horrible, sick, twisted, depraved horror that is Neon Demon, the greater travesty is that the movie probably illustrated reality as good as possible on screen. The truth is that the people in these areas and industries are nasty, horrible, depraved, immoral, terrible people, and anyone innocent and good will be destroyed – either physically, morally, or both. All in all, it is a nasty, horrific movie that I would strongly advise against ever seeing for your own sanity, but the most tragic thing about it is that it may not be far from the truth.
Terrible Elements:
• Cannibalism
• Necrophilia
• Gratuitous Nudity
• Homosexuality
• Unimaginable Gore
• Traumatizing Grotesqueness
Side Effects From Watching:
• Queasy Stomach
• Vomiting
• Burning Eyes
• Nightmares
• Loss Of Appetite
• Headaches or Migraines
• Impotence / Sexual Problems
• Poor Work Performance
• Depression
• Seizures
• Spiritual Oppression
• Being Traumatized For Life
• Could Cause Suicide Attempts
Age recommendation limit:
• 150 years old and older only
