Vulgar auteur Nicolas Winding Refn hasn’t made a feature film in ten years, having released two television shows — Too Old to Die Young and Copenhagen Cowboy — in the meantime. Blending giallo influence with neo-noir and a space opera, NWR’s return to the big screen, Her Private Hell, is one of the most indulgent works in the filmmaker’s career, which is saying a lot, but it’s also a straight shot of camp that creates an absorbing, fun experience.
What is Her Private Hell about?
The main story of the film follows Sophie Thatcher (Companion) as a wealthy socialite who finds that she and her circle have become the targets of a leather-clad slasher who targets young women that have daddy issues. I think? The dialogue explaining the origin story of the very originally named “Leather Man” is pretty quick, and his motivations and backstory are never really addressed again.
The more interesting storyline in the film is that of Charles Melton’s (May December) “Private K,” who is essentially a hard-boiled detective investigating the film’s villain. It’s certainly the more comfortable zone for Refn to be working in, feeling reminiscent of his earlier work in Drive and Only God Forgives, among others, but Melton makes for a compelling protagonist — if only we saw more of him.
Her Private Hell Review
The biggest issue with Her Private Hell is the dialogue, which can admittedly be laughably bad at times. Everyone in the film is speaking cryptically, as if they are poets, but the poetry makes absolutely no sense. As a result, there is an uncomfortable rhythm to the dialogue that often crosses the line into pretentiousness.
Ultimately, the most impressive accomplishment of Her Private Hell is that, despite being about a villain named “the Leather Man” who kills people with diamond hands, it manages to be one of the most aggressively heterosexual films of all time. Only NWR could take a premise that is so inherently campy and turn it into something that will (perhaps accurately) be construed by viewers as misogynistic.
And frankly, trying to find any meaning in Refn’s latest work is futile. It is as vapid, style-over-substance filmmaking as they come. The filmmaker explores his usual obsessions here — beauty, violence, melodrama — but he doesn’t have anything particularly meaningful to say about these ideas, unlike his last feature film, The Neon Demon.
However, like much of Refn’s work, Her Private Hell is best seen as a “vibes movie.” If you don’t put too much stock into the conventions of cinema like story or structure, you can get wrapped up in the intoxicating atmosphere that NWR builds here. Refn doesn’t seem to be concerned with making a film that is anything more than fun and beautiful to look at, and he delivers on that promise.
As will come as no surprise to fans, this film’s visuals are as indulgent and neon-tinged as one could hope for. What stands out about Her Private Hell is how well Refn is able to blend elements of camp with elements that feel like they are done on a genuinely massive scale. It splits the difference nicely between the low-budget Italian genre influences Refn clearly has here and the modern sensibilities of art house filmmaking.
Is Her Private Hell worth watching?
Is Her Private Hell a masterwork? By no means. But with this surreal camp odyssey, Nicolas Winding Refn seems to have had an incredibly clear vision of what he wanted to create, and it feels like every sincere drop of that vision is on the screen. If you’re not a fan of NWR and his usual indulgences, obviously stay far away, as this is his most self-aggrandizing work; but for those who have been eagerly awaiting his return to form, this absolutely delivers.
Her Private Hell premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, which ran from May 12-23.
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