The First Trailer For Nicolas Winding Refn's 'The Neon Demon' Is Dark, Sexy, And Twisted

One of the things I look forward to like little else is the arrival of a new Nicolas Winding Refn movie. His latest, The NeonDemon, is, understandably, a film I’ve been keeping an eye on for quite some time. Though it hits later this year, we haven’t seen much, aside from a handful of stills and posters. That is, until today. The first trailer for the modeling-world-set horror thriller just dropped, and it’s dark, sexy, and twisted. Check it out after the jump.

Gorgeous, sultry, methodical; this trailer for The Neon Demon is everything you expect from a Nicolas Winding Refn movie. The likes of Drive, Valhalla Rising, Bronson, and Only God Forgives rank among my favorite modern films, so this is enough to make me positively giddy.

An aspiring model, Jesse (Elle Fanning), moves to Los Angeles to ply her trade. There she falls in with a group of beauty-obsessed women who feed off of her youth and vitality, and will rip away everything she has by any means available. What we see in this trailer, the striking images, the use of vivid, contrasting color, matches what has already been revealed, which is even greater cause to celebrate.

Aesthetically and thematically, The Neon Demon owes an obvious debt to Dario Argento’s Suspiria, from the Day-Glo psychedelia to the young-woman-enters-a-new-world set up. There’s also a Black Swan type of vibe going on. I can’t wait to watch all three back-to-back-to-back and lose my shit.

Also starring Jena Malone, Christina Hendricks, Bella Heathcote, Keanu Reeves, Alessandro Nivola, Abbey Lee, and more, The Neon Demon is set to debut at Cannes next month, with Amazon Studios to release it in theaters later this year.