How NEON Lit Up The Horror Genre

Horror's Hall Of Fame: NEON

This is #HouseOfHorrors, where Prahlad Srihari compiles the definitive guide on the modern production houses that comprise the genre's hall of fame.

This is OTTplay’s House Of Horrors, an 8-part guide to the contemporary production houses that have cemented their places in the genre’s hall of fame. In part 5, we look at NEON. Check out our previous newsletters on Blumhouse, A24, IFC Midnight and Platinum Dunes.

What is NEON?

Tom Quinn, who ran The Weinstein Company’s boutique label RADiUS until 2015, joined hands with Tim League, the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain, to start NEON in 2017. In the six years since, the specialty distributor has turned into something of a Cannes whisperer. Starting with Parasite in 2019, NEON has recorded four consecutive Palme d’Or wins, with Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall becoming the latest to pick up the honour at the just-concluded 76th edition of the film festival. Aside from festival favourites, horror has been just as intrinsic a foundational pillar for the company. Films like Revenge, Possessor, Titane and Crimes of the Future have been key to building the NEON brand.

What is NEON known for?

Shepherding Parasite from Cannes to the Oscars and giving new life to the body horror subgenre.

If Parasite picking up a Palme d’or at Cannes 2019 marked the indie upstart’s first major milestone, pulling off a successful Oscar campaign for the Bong Joon Ho film announced its arrival as an outfit with some weight to throw around. On gaining legitimacy, Quinn doubled down on his vision, pulling all the stops in festival bidding wars and awards pushes. At this year’s Oscars, he got the 2022 Palme d’or winner Triangle of Sadness close to the finish line on the back of a strong campaign.

WATCH NEON'S TITANE

BLAZE OF GORY

How NEON Lit Up The Horror Genre

By Prahlad Srihari

AT a time when Netflix and Amazon are disrupting the festival market by driving up the prices, NEON continues to promise a slate of big-screen experiences, starting with limited distribution before expanding to additional markets. Quinn trusts moviegoers, seasoned or casual, will turn out in hives — as they did for Parasite — if marketed well. His shrewd instincts for non-English films also extend to genre films and documentaries. What makes his company stand out as a distributor is how it has been able to sell tickets for the kind of films that audiences have traditionally been resistant to embracing, be it a historical doc like Apollo 11, a rapturous French queer romance like Portrait of a Lady on Fire or a queasy nightmare like Infinity Pool.

What are the hallmarks of NEON’s horror productions?

If NEON has risen through the ranks so soon, it’s not only because the company is awards-savvy but also because it knows how to market its films. Parasite would not have become the first non-English language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture otherwise. Acting as a cultural intermediary, the company has been able to influence how audiences perceive its films through clever promotional campaigns. Its logo has virtually become a stamp of approval. Trailers are well-cut in a way that creates more interest in the films, rather than serve as a primer. The red-band teaser for Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, for example, is as intense and disorienting as the film itself: a progressively throbbing cut teases the most extreme invasion of privacy without giving the entire plot away. The claim that “surgery is the new sex”, made by a nervy-pervy Kristen Stewart in David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, became a catchy tagline. Julia Ducournau’s Titane got a fiery red-band trailer featuring stripteases atop automobiles and firefighters jostling in a mosh pit — all set to the counteracting strains of The Zombies’ “She’s Not There”.

No longer relegated to B-movie status, body horror has found more fans in recent years, with new voices tearing apart and patching up its conventions in bold new ways. The aesthetic and thematic paradigm laid out by David Cronenberg has been expanded with genre-defining efforts by his son Brandon (Possessor, Infinity Pool) and Ducournau (Raw, Titane). Revenge, the debut feature of Ducournau’s compatriot Coralie Fargeat, serves a gnarly riposte to the rape-revenge fantasy, and in some style. Swedish filmmaker Ninja Thyberg’s unflinching debut feature Pleasure shows — through the eyes of a newcomer — how easily women can lose control of their bodies in the adult film industry and how the commodification of sex can end up creating degrading workplace conditions.

The horror films of NEON tend to be auteur-driven offerings which prioritise character and craft. Josephine Decker’s Shirley and Pablo Larraín’s Spencer don’t play as straightforward biopics of Shirley Jackson and Princess Diana (respectively), but as moody psychological horror movies that look to get under the skin and inside the troubled minds of their subjects. Amy Seimetz taps into the experimental spirit of James Benning’s work on her second feature She Dies Tomorrow, where a young woman’s fear of death proves infectious, provoking a chain reaction of existential dread among those around her. The film resonated with audiences because it arrived in the middle of a pandemic when we were all forced to confront our mortality — and anxiety spread like a contagion. Ben Wheatley set his eco-horror freakout In the Earth against a pandemic where paranoia starts to run riot.

Who are the directors NEON has worked with?

NEON has established itself as a distributor and friend of the auteur. Many celebrated genre filmmakers have collaborated with the company: Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal), Ana Lily Amirpour (The Bad Batch), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (The Lodge), Ben Wheatley (In the Earth), Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor, Infinity Pool), Julia Ducournau (Titane) and the OG of body horror David Cronenberg (Crimes of the Future). By marketing their films as they deserve and more, NEON is virtually assuring them that betting on NEON is like betting on themselves.

Which are NEON’s defining horror movies?

In order of release: Revenge (2017), The Lodge (2019), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Possessor (2020), Titane (2021), Crimes of the Future (2022), Infinity Pool (2023)

Parasite has been NEON’s biggest box-office earner by a considerable margin, with a worldwide total of $258.7 million. Infinity Pool ($5.3 mn) and Titane ($4.9 mn) are its two biggest horror hits so far.

Which are NEON’s (actual) best horror and horror-adjacent movies?

In order of personal preference: Possessor (2020), Spencer (2021), Crimes of the Future (2022), Titane (2021), Shirley (2020), Revenge (2017), Pleasure (2021), Infinity Pool (2023), In the Earth (2021), She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

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