Trailer for ‘The Neon Demon’ is peak L.A.

The first trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest directorial effort, “The Neon Demon,” was released Thursday, the same day it was announced that the film would be competing for Palme d’Or at Cannes, featuring Los Angeles’ biggest star: Los Angeles.

“The Neon Demon” centers around upcoming model Jesse (Elle Fanning) as she relocates to Los Angeles and falls in with a group of women who may very well eat her alive, though it remains unclear if the threat is literal or not.

The horror thriller appears to be addressing the question long posed by cinephiles, “What if ‘Suspiria’ and ‘America’s Next Top Model’ had a baby?” with the answer being, “Wonderful things.”

When it comes to capturing the strange, slightly alien beauty of L.A., you couldn’t ask for a better director than Refn, whose 2011 effort “Drive” featured Ryan Gosling toodling around the desolate streets of Los Angeles accompanied by only a moody soundtrack and his pain.

But Refn goes above and beyond in the trailer for “The Neon Demon” and reaches peak surrealist L.A., with darkened club scenes suffused with blue light and spite, to weirdo fashion shoots that vacillate between high art and outtakes from “Tron,” to seedy hotels where they advertise a pool but don’t advertise that it’s been empty since 1983. Also, the seedy hotel room has a cougar in it, which is pretty much the most L.A. thing that has ever happened.

Fanning looks haunted and awkward as Jesse, meaning she should be a huge success in the modeling industry, and the trailer truly has something for everyone: blood, tears, punching and more glitter than all of West Hollywood, all in front of beautiful Los Angeles vistas.

Mere words cannot do the unhinged masterpiece of this trailer justice, so watch above and marvel at the fact that it apparently also stars Keanu Reeves (not pictured.)

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