2026 Her Private Hell

• Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
• Written by: Nicholas Winding Refn, Esti Giordani
• Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7E-0t1TfzM

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The IMDB.com description says, “A hypnotic, unhinged thriller with an original story promising plenty of glamour, sex, and violence.” which is useful to use because I’d have no idea how to describe it exactly. It’s surreal and futuristic, with dialogue that is deliberately stilted and odd. It looks great, and there’s sort of a story there to be deciphered. Watch it for the visuals, then wonder afterward what it is you just saw.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a shadowy, misty, futuristic city with lots of cyberpunk elements (Kevin called it “the Blade Runner planet” right off the bat). At the Tower Hotel, Elle looks up at the neon tower. Inside, she meets Hunter, and they have some clunky dialogue. They go up to Elle’s apartment, and it’s super huge. Dominique comes in and gives them a lecture about not being relatable. Dominique turns out to be Elle’s stepmother.

We flash over to her father, Johnny Thunders, who is powerful and likes to play games with people. There’s a whole scene with models, dresses, needles, and discussion about the mist and what it brings. Johnny tells the girls about the Leatherman, a father cursed to search for his daughter in the mist. Hunter is fascinated by the older man, who wants Elle and Dominique to make up and be friends again– by making a movie together.

Elle and Hunter watch as someone in the neighboring building is murdered.

We cut to Elle aboard a starship that enters some kind of vortex that makes her pass out. She gets into a laser battle with a bunch of fembots but gets shot in the arm. I assume this is the “movie” they were supposed to be making. Suddenly, Hunter tells them about the Leatherman story again, and it’s all true. She tells them about a pair of women, The Kingmakers, who are the guides for the Leatherman.

Elle goes home and finds that her father has left her a hatchet and a note to bury the hatchet, literally. [At this point, we’re 35 minutes in, and I really have no idea what’s going on or why].

We cut to “Private K,” a man with a cigarette lighter. “I saw the Leatherman,” he explains. “I saw him take my daughter. Is he a ghost? A monster? A god?” He talks to a detective who learns that K recently lost his daughter to a kidnapper when the mist came.

He hears a scream and runs toward it to help, where he knocks out a guy with his brass knuckles. He breaks up a whole trafficking/photography thing out in an alley somewhere. It’s all very colorful and violent. The police arrest him for killing all the perpetrators. The police then take off K’s shirt and whip him; meanwhile, Elle moans “Daddy” in her sleep over and over.

Elle, Dominique, and Hunter bark like dogs to each other and then go out for the evening to meet Nico, a guy they all know. They talk about fetal art. Hunter tells him all about the Leatherman as well.

Private K talks more about his lost daughter, and I strongly suspect that it’s going to be Elle when she was a child (could Johnny Thunders be the Leatherman? Who could see THAT coming?) He talks to the Kingmakers, who tell him that he’s just a memory. They explain that he will see his daughter again, but only when he dies. The yakuza show up and beat up K, but he kills them all, unarmed.

Dominique and Elle have a long conversation about being former and future friends. The two of them, along with Hunter, go to the least crowded rave I’ve ever seen. Maybe Private K is there. Nico is there, and he kisses everyone, and they all kiss each other as K watches from outside.

K tries to break in as someone, I think Hunter, gets her chest ripped open (I’m not sure who it was, I was too busy looking up synonyms for “pretentious”).

Elle then goes home to her apartment above the mist and makes out with Dominique. No, she stuffs underwear in Dominique’s mouth. This leads to a full-on fight with knives and everything. Elle goes for the hatchet.

Suddenly, the Leatherman arrives, and he silences Dominique. Trapped, Elle waits to see who the Leatherman turns out to be. Since there are only two men in the film, it’s not much of a debate. The demonic Leatherman fights Private K dramatically. K loses, but then Elle cuts off the Leatherman’s hands with the hatchet. Characters give long, lingering looks at the camera and then vanish, leaving Elle alone in the mist.

The Kingmakers appear to choose her fate. They give her some magic gloves.

Brian’s Commentary

That the hell was that all about?

It’s extremely visual, most scenes seem composed for the sake of visual art instead of any kind of rational story. There are some ideas here, but they’re barely connected and the overall plot is dragged out that it’s just boring as anything.

This “mist” needed more extradimensional monsters. That would have livened it up.

It’s a self-indulgent, pretentious waste of two hours. If you’re really into cinematography and art, go for it. If you want a story, stay far, far away.

As Kevin says, “Yeah, that happened.”

Kevin’s Commentary

Brian said, “This is what you get if you let the cameraman write a movie,” and I thought that was spot on. Lots of long lingering shots and strangeness and camera work that look great but don’t really mean anything. It’s like the visuals and imagery and surrealism came first, then a sort of loose story was inserted around that.

“Nicolas Winding Refn (the director) said the story originated from combining three separate ideas: a young woman arriving in a city that does not exist, a man willing to descend into Hell to rescue his daughter, and a third narrative thread created specifically to connect the first two into a “triangle” structure.” Well alrighty then.

It was pretty to look at, but the near-two-hour runtime started feeling long for me well before the halfway point. I wouldn’t recommend it.