Pretentious and self-indulgent, it seems tailor-made to appeal to lovers of the obtuse and inscrutable until it takes a left-turn into schlocky, gore-drenched splatter imagery.

Archly silly, quotable, visually hypnotic and perfectly suited for repeat viewings. On first watch, the film is bizarre, hallucinatory, shockingly gruesome. A second watch unlocks the dumb-clever charms of Refn's script

Refn is hardly the first moviemaker to find a link between supermodels and scary monsters, but he may be the most style-minded one to make the connection. Imagine an issue of Vogue with Maleficent as guest editor.

Things go downhill rapidly as the movie descends into horror material that is laughably grotesque yet so visually cool it remains fatally unfunny.

There's no denying the beauty of Refn's images, even if his puerile instincts are at odds with his obvious pretensions. Those who cry it's shallow and ugly won't be wrong; others will love it for those very reasons.