--- title: "Her Private Hell: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/her-private-hell/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/her-private-hell" critics_score: 39 critics_reviews: 15 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Her Private Hell (2026): what the critics said Critics' score 39 from 15 reviews: 4 positive, 1 mixed, 10 negative. Most critics do not like it, and those who do like it for the reasons the rest do not. Ten of fifteen reviews are negative, and the complaint that recurs is style over substance. Where there is agreement it is on Pino Donaggio’s score, which several reviews call the one thing holding the film together, and on the neon-lit sets, which nearly everyone concedes are handsome even with nothing behind them. Kristine Froseth and Charles Melton are each picked out once as bright spots in otherwise mannered acting. The reservations cluster on plot, or the lack of one, and on stilted dialogue delivered at a glacial pace. Several critics accuse Refn of recycling his own motifs; Collider goes further and finds the treatment of the women openly misogynistic. The spread is wide, from ten to seventy-five, and the dissenters, Deadline and The Ringer among them, argue that the incoherence is the point and the film should be taken as spectacle or not at all. ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2026. Festival review. The critic describes Refn’s film as a bizarre, shapeshifting fantasia and midnight movie of dreamy disquiet that eludes definition as it moves between doomy reality and strange dream worlds. They single out its hypnotic strangeness and slow, sepulchral pace executed with quasi-Lynchian characters in neon-lit settings. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/19/her-private-hell-review-a-bizarre-shapeshifting-fantasia-nicolas-winding-refn) ## Los Angeles Times — Amy Nicholson Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 23 July 2026. The critic describes it as an expressionistic sci-fi fantasy with cryptic babes, stagy fables of lust and rivalry, and hazy plotting that defies logic. Refn's commitment to his style is admired, with Kristine Froseth singled out as the scene-stealing comic sexpot. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-07-23/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-sophie-thatcher-havana-rose-liu-kristine-froseth) ## The AV Club — Jason Gorber Rating C. 20 May 2026. The critic calls the film a moody, messy dud that favors style over substance and fails to be either exceptional or truly egregious. The score stands out as the one element providing some romantic and chromatic relief amid the artificiality and meandering plot. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/her-private-hell-review) ## Radio Times — James Mottram Rating 2/5. 20 May 2026. Festival review. The critic calls it an endurance test and Marmite movie that is sexy and stylish in its hellscape textures and violent set pieces but ultimately pretentious, laborious and lacking plot or tension. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/her-private-hell-review/) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2026. Festival review. The critic finds the film intermittently enrapturing in its sensual visuals, sex and violence but largely frustrating, with stilted dialogue and a vacuousness that becomes its principal feature. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-thriller-is-exercise-in-style-over-substance/5216962.article) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2026. Festival review. The critic describes Refn returning with a fantastical metropolis story heavy on violent eye-gouging, neon visuals and orchestral score, but hampered by wafer-thin characterisation and an emphasis on style over substance. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/her-private-hell-nicolas-winding-refns-gory-neon-fairytale-puts-style-before-substance) ## The New York Times — Jeannette Catsoulis Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 23 July 2026. The critic finds the film a ponderous, neon-soaked fairy tale with a laughable plot and stylized performances, best appreciated as a surreal spoof of Refn himself. The lush score by Pino Donaggio serves as the movie's lifeline amid mannered and phlegmatic direction. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/movies/her-private-hell-review.html) ## Slant Magazine Rating 1/4. 22 July 2026. The review praises the film as a hypnotic, neon-tinged sci-fi thriller that suggests Inland Empire for the influencer set, with strong filmmaking and overripe dialogue in its wild climax. It singles out the transcendental method in Refn’s trashy madness as potentially moving for some viewers. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn/) ## Variety — Owen Gleiberman Fi1m's normalised score 20/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2026. Festival review. The critic calls the film a David Lynch-on-bad-acid disaster with no coherent story, just models posing and snarling amid lavish sets and a gorgeous score. Refn is faulted for recycling motifs into pretentious art-trash that announces itself as too cool to cohere. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-1236753509/) ## IndieWire — Ryan Lattanzio Fi1m's normalised score 10/100 (inferred from the text). 20 July 2026. The review describes the film as a ghastly, miserable endurance test that despises its audience, with actors delivering lines at a glacial pace in a neon-drowned setting. It singles out the overall theatrical viewing experience as one of the most unpleasant in years. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-1235194806/) ## The Hollywood Reporter Fi1m's normalised score 10/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2026. Festival review. The critic finds the film numbing and self-indulgent, calling it an agonizing return marked by excessive style over substance. The futuristic, neon-drenched setting and horror-thriller elements are singled out as overly fetishistic and dull. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-charles-melton-1236600373/) ## Deadline — Damon Wise Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2026. Festival review. The critic finds it a bold, trippy return to feature filmmaking that divides viewers and demands they take a side. He singles out Pino Donaggio’s phenomenal score as the secret sauce that guides the film and gives it emotional context. [Read the review](https://deadline.com/2026/05/her-private-hell-review-pino-donaggio-nicolas-winding-refn-sophie-thatcher-1236915259/) ## The Ringer — Adam Nayman Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 24 July 2026. The critic embraces the film's full-throttle, unhinged Refn style—its fetishistic visuals, score, lighting, and genre signifiers—as a hypnotic, self-indulgent spectacle worth experiencing even without narrative coherence. He singles out the atmospheric, tactile interiors and structural parallels among father figures for praise amid the camp miasma. [Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2026/07/24/movies/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-sophie-thatcher) ## The Playlist — Rafa Sales Ross Rating D-. 19 May 2026. Festival review. The critic finds the film a hollow, derivative imitation of Refn's previous work, lacking energy and emotional depth despite its neon visuals and stylistic nods. They single out Charles Melton's performance as the film's only saving grace amid otherwise listless acting and aimless storytelling. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/her-private-hell-review-nicolas-winding-refn-cannes-20260519/) ## Collider — Therese Lacson Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 20 May 2026. Festival review. The critic finds the film visually gorgeous in its cyberpunk aesthetic but ultimately empty and lifeless, with stilted dialogue and mechanical storytelling. She singles out the misogynistic male gaze, shallow female characters reduced to daddy issues and sexual exploitation, and lack of substance or horror-thriller elements despite the talent involved. [Read the review](https://collider.com/her-private-hell-nicolas-winding-refn-cyberpunk-sci-fi-horror-cannes-2026/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/her-private-hell.md