15 Most Controversial Movie Moments 2016

After premiering at Cannes to both a chorus of boos and a standing ovation, Nicolas Winding Refn’s controversial fashion industry set psychological horror The Neon Demon went on to be denounced as depraved, exploitative and the most offensive film of the year by the film press. For a filmmaker like Winding Refn whose movies have been accused of violent misogyny in the past perhaps choosing to make a female-focused horror set within an industry also accused of sexism and featuring scantily clad young women wasn’t the wisest of career moves, but there’s one scene in particular that seemed to get everybody’s goat.

Jena Malone plays Ruby, a makeup artist who moonlights as a morgue worker and falls for the charms of Elle Fanning’s naïve but narcissistic young model Jesse. After Jesse rebuffs her advances, Ruby heads off to her second job where she relieves some of loneliness triggered by her rejection by having sex with a female cadaver.

No doubt Winding Refn was aware of the controversy a prolonged scene of lesbian necrophilia would court and in a film that features cannibalism, rape and Elle Fanning deep-throating a knife it seems par for the course. Nevertheless, such a taboo subject was a step too far for many moviegoers and the film ending up making a meagre $3 million against its $7 million budget. Lesson learned? Maybe Winding Refn should stick to sex scenes involving living characters from now on.