This week sees the North American opening of Nicholas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell. A dark, mind-bending thriller set in a dystopian future city, it sees a soldier on a mission to liberate his daughter from an apparently mythical demon, whilst a famous actress holed up in a luxury hotel negotiates family drama.

Her Private Hell is Nicholas Winding Refn’s first feature length movie in 10 years, his last movie being 2016’s The Neon Demon. Her Private Hell was presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year, reportedly receiving a sustained standing ovation, whilst it has also been reported that there were several walkouts.

 Refn’s movies have always been considered somewhat stark and challenging, and Her Private Hell doesn’t look to be any different – at the time of writing the movie had a rating of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, though this was based on only 37 reviews. His work, though, is not generally suited to pop, commercial review, it is instead requiring of a much deeper dive into the themes and meaning. The director’s movies have never quite fallen into the cyberstopian realm, though Drive, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon have all felt somehow cyberstopian adjacent. Surely it’s only a matter of time before he goes full cyberpunk with something?

Her Private Hell stars the excellent Sophie Thatcher, who we’ve long admired. She is an extremely talented actress, who always makes interesting choices with the roles she takes. In terms of cyberstopia, she played the part of Iris, the titular Companion in last year’s movie about an AI robot who suffers abuse at the hands of her human ‘boyfriend’. Her Private Hell also stars Charles Melton as Private K.

Quite how far the neon-drenched Her Private Hell falls into cyberstopian areas remains to be seen, but it certainly promises to be an interesting watch, and a source of much debate. Her Private Hell is released in the US this week, and in the UK on 25th September, distributed by Mubi. You can watch the trailer below.