Welcome back to Everything but Bone! This week we are going to be examining one of the most polarizing horror films of 2016, Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon. It’s one of those love it or hate it films and I’m on the love it side of things. While messy in places, The Neon Demon has great visuals, a mesmerizing soundtrack, and a hell of a stunning ending.
The Neon Demon is about a young teen named Jesse (Elle Fanning) who has recently moved to California to be a model. Everyone is attracted to her beauty, making her an easy target for jealousy. She befriends makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) and a pair of models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee). As Jesse grows successful, something more sinister is planned for her.
As part of my preparation for this article, I read the script by Refn, Mary Laws, and Polly Stenham. Compared to what viewers actually see in the film, the script, to be blunt, is terrible. Even people who don’t like the film can praise certain sequences and the strong aesthetic. But the script relies too heavily on dialogue to get the story across. When watching horror movies people aren’t usually scared by characters’ motive rants, they’re scared by what they’re seeing on screen.
Another aspect of the script that was heavily altered in its production is some of the characters. Yes, this maybe something beyond the control of the writers but the level of difference between script and film make this something to comment on. In live action films, actors are part of the visuals, and casting choices can make or break a film. An Asian fashion designer who is so stereotypical she’s a racist caricature is replaced by Alessandro Nivola’s smarmy white dude know-it-all. Hotel manager Hank is written as chauvinist scumbag, but Keanu Reeves turns him into a chilling predator.
But those are small potatoes compared to Jena Malone’s Ruby. Originally written as weak and ultimately a victim, the Ruby of the film is the ultimate big bad. The script doesn’t even have Ruby’s most infamous act, where she goes full necrophile on a beautiful female corpse. According to Refn, the film was shot chronologically and Ruby’s loving-the-dead was partially improvised by Malone, and thus Ruby’s character arc was changed. See, you gotta pick the right actors.
This is a great moment and a good film to use to talk about the difference between visual storytelling and a film’s aesthetic. Aesthetic is the feel and style of the film; sure it does contribute to the story, but things can look pretty and not mean anything. Visual storytelling is when what’s on screen actually helps the plot. The aesthetic of The Neon Demon is memorable. Light and color take over scenes, and there are a few parts where we aren’t sure if we are watching reality or not.
Southern California becomes a liminal space where anything can happen.
One of the most famous writing maxims is “show don’t tell.” This is certainly the case here. So much of the script is dialogue filling in blanks where the audience would make assumptions. We’ve talked about ambiguity in horror and how it makes the atmosphere of a film more frightening. In the script, Ruby is explicitly stated to be practicing some sort of magic, making it clearer that the eventual murder of Jesse actually has supernatural goals. In the film, this is turned into Ruby having strange tattoos. In the final cut, whether or not the sacrifice is real or not is up to the audience. I think it’s far creepier if it’s all for nothing.
Gigi and Sarah’s motivations for helping murder Jesse are stated repeatedly by the characters in the original script. And you guessed it: they wanted to look even more beautiful for men. Ugh, sexist and trite. Character motivation usually should be clear, but isn’t it freakier to not know what drew the women to kill? Monologging is for Saturday morning cartoon villains; if it’s clunky, cut it out.
It’s always scarier to have your mind fill in the blanks. Refn could have filmed a scene of Ruby, Sarah, and Gigi butchering Jesse for consumption, but it’s far more shocking to just cut to Ruby lounging in the bathtub, slathered with blood and some of the glitter Jesse was wearing earlier. A punch to the gut can feel worse than slow nausea.
When Gigi vomits up one of Jesse’s bright blue eyes, viewers get the final confirmation that the models didn’t just bathe in Jesse’s blood – they ate her. This nauseating shot may just be the most iconic scene in The Neon Demon. We didn’t need speeches or gore to know what happened, just one little bloody eyeball against a blue rug.
The Neon Demon shows us what can happen as the production process transforms what would be an okay idea into a brilliant one. Especially when writing a horror movie, the less dialogue you use to get the point across the better. If The Neon Demon had been produced as it was written, we would have watched a forgettably average slasher. Refn and his team, pardon the phrase, trimmed the fat, and made a much better film.
