The Neon Demon of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's groundbreaking surrealist short "Un Chien Andalou" – that all you can do is howl or cheer." Tirdad Derakhshani, writing for "The Philadelphia Inquirer", called Refn a "bold visionary artist... able to revel in the culture of instant gratification while also subjecting it to critique", giving the film three and a half out of four stars and calling it a "brutal masterpiece". Rene Rodriguez of "The Miami Herald" wrote positively of the film's visuals and experimental filmmaking, writing, "To complain that "The Neon Demon" lacks substance or that it doesn't have anything to say about
Destiny (1921 film) acting as machines. He argues that characters like Death "take on the quality of symbols, become archetypes of sub-human forces who embody the concept of Destiny, or the threat to the German nation in the years immediately after the first World War." The ghost-like appearance of Death is a recurring feature in Lang's films, reportedly stemming from dreams he had as a child. Similar figures appear in "Metropolis" (1927) and "While the City Sleeps" (1956). Luis Buñuel, director of "Un Chien Andalou", was highly inspired by this film. He states: "When I saw "Destiny", I suddenly knew that I wanted