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Nicolas Winding Refn’s Feminist Horror Film The Neon Demon Is Heading to Amazon

SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 21: (L-R) Moderator Eric Vespe, director Nicolas Winding Refn, actress Carey Mulligan and actor Ron Perlman speak at Film District Studio Panel in Hall H at the San Diego Convention Center on July 21, 2011 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for MRC)
Photo: Kevin Winter/2011 Getty Images

Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn’s hotly anticipated The Neon Demon, which chronicles the hellish ordeal of a young aspiring model (Elle Fanning) who embarks on a journey to Los Angeles to pursue her dream career, has been picked up by Amazon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The model encounters a coven of insidious women who covet her youth and beauty and attempt to sap it from her. “One morning, I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women,†Refn said. “Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty.†The film also stars Christina Hendricks (who literally carved her own face off in the name of beauty in Ryan Gosling’s oneiric Lost River) and the beautiful Keanu Reeves, who doesn’t ever seem to age. Refn’s polarizing Only God Forgives, a laconic and leisurely descent into a nightmare realm of violence and betrayal, rubbed a lot of fans of the more mainstream Drive the wrong way. It’ll be interesting to see whether the filmmaker delves deeper into opacity or returns to a more approachable aesthetic for streaming audiences.

Nicolas Refn’s The Neon Demon Goes to Amazon