Director Nicolas Winding Refn has established himself in Hollywood as a unique and fascinating voice. His films are often introspective and brooding, with sharp bursts of excessive violence, and feature brilliant uses of color and sound that are as vital as any character. At its best, that distinctive style has produced gripping movies that perfectly balance high-art and thrills. When not at its best, though, it can make a film dull and overly pretentious as it surrenders logic and coherent storytelling in favor of style. Her Private Hell is Refn’s style thoroughly not at its best.

The film is split into three main tales. Actress Elle (Sophie Thatcher) must deal with a naïve and energetic new co-star on her film while also navigating the complicated relationships she has with her father and her former friend-turned-stepmother. Meanwhile, an American G.I. known only as Private K (Charles Melton) is hunting the mist filled streets in search of his kidnapped daughter. Both dramas play out as a supernatural entity know as the Leatherman (Jason Hendil-Forssell) stalks the mist, brutally killing young women.

The entire film plays out more like a dream than a proper narrative. That can work just fine, plenty of movies have pulled off surrealism before. In order to do so, though, you need some kind of grounding element that the audience can latch onto. Usually this comes in the form of a relatable main character, which Her Private Hell simply does not have. Sophie Thatcher is a good actress, but her take on Elle is baffling. It’s one thing to play a complicated character, it’s quite another to play one this tonally inconsistent. She is all over the place emotionally and takes some big acting risks that do not really land.

Part of the problem might be the writing, though. You can tell that the script thinks of itself as witty and subversive. Every frame of the movie and line of dialogue is blatantly self-congratulatory, but none of it feels earned. At their core, all three plotlines are simple and easily predictable. All of the characters are exactly who they seem to be when you first meet them, and none of them have anything interesting to say. They also periodically stop to explain major plot points because they don’t trust the audience to understand what’s going on. Which is fascinating, because the film isn’t complicated. The set design and Refn’s constant perspective jumping try to disguise the movie as complex, but really there isn’t that much going on.

I do have to give praise to that set design and the atmosphere. Refn is excellent at crafting visually interesting worlds, and the neon-drenched cityscape of Her Private Hell is no exception. Honestly, I’d almost recommend watching this film just to experience the world itself. Almost.

Unfortunately, the excellent set design isn’t enough to justify a movie that simply isn’t as deep or clever as it wants you to believe that it is. It’s slick and full of style, and gorgeous to look at, but nothing of any note is actually going on and none of the performances are good enough to distract from the pointless plot. Most importantly, it’s just plain boring. Like the young women in the story, I’m guessing the intrigue, good performances, and worthwhile plot must have also been taken by the Leatherman, because they are definitely missing.