After a decade away from the big screen, director Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private Hell: a typically stylish horror starring Sophia Thatcher. Here’s the trailer: Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn appears to be picking things up where he left off a decade ago. His new film, Her Private Hell, isn’t billed as a ... Her Private Hell | First teaser emerges for Nicolas Winding Refn’s fashion horror
After a decade away from the big screen, director Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private Hell: a typically stylish horror starring Sophia Thatcher. Here’s the trailer:
Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn appears to be picking things up where he left off a decade ago. His new film, Her Private Hell, isn’t billed as a sequel to 2016’s The Neon Demon – his last film before that lengthy absence from cinemas – but the similarities are quite striking.
Or at least, they appear to be based on the first teaser (see below) released by boutique distributor Neon. Like that earlier film, Her Private Hell seems to be set among the elfin good looks and clawing ambition of the fashion industry. There are slow, deliberate camera moves through minimalist, gaudily lit spaces. The shot compositions are stark and geometric. The film’s title page is signed with the initials NWR, adding to its resemblance to a scary perfume commercial.
There appears to be a stronger horror element here than was seen even in The Neon Demon, which discussed fashion’s exploitation and cruelty before really going to some wild places in its final stretch. Here, Sophie Thatcher’s protagonist ends up in a nightmare plot that vaguely resembles John Carpenter’s The Fog (or Frank Darabont’s The Mist).
As the official synopsis puts it:
When a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, unleashing a deadly and elusive entity, a troubled young woman searches for her father. Her quest collides with an American GI on a harrowing odyssey to rescue his daughter from Hell.
Given that this is a film from the maker of Bronson, Drive and Only God Forgives, Her Private Hell probably won’t stick to the rules of traditional storytelling. It recently had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and the first reviews suggest we’re in for more of Refn’s critically-divisive, hyper-stylised moodiness. Excitingly, the music’s by Pino Donaggio – a veteran composer who’s well versed in creating lush scores for exacting directors (see: Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill).
Her Private Hell is getting a US cinema release on the 24th July. We’ll pass the UK release date along when we get it.
