Cinema for Brunch THE SHROUDS Review

Grief is the name and graves are the game in David Cronenberg’s latest “The Shrouds”, a body horror sci-fi about struggling to let go.

Synopsis

Karsh, a creative entrepreneur who lost his spouse, develops a machine designed to communicate with deceased individuals.

Review
“Grief is rotting your teeth” – that’s a hell of a dialogue opener to start a film about the emotional limits of technology and grief itself. Never failing to elevate the genre of body horror, whether it be literal or metaphysical, David Cronenberg returns with his latest film “The Shrouds”. The Canadian-made sci-fi film follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a techno-entrepreneur who is an innovator of a controversial technology called GraveTech in which people can monitor their loved ones decaying in the ground in real time. While still being in grief over the loss of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), Karsh discovers that multiple graves at his site, including that of his wife, are desecrated. The film follows Karsh as he sets out to solve the mystery of who destroyed the graves. Pairing grief with the dangers of advanced technology seems just like the kind of twisted cocktail of themes Cronenberg was born to tackle. More drama than body horror, “The Shrouds” (a film Cronenberg wrote following the death of his own wife) is a personal film that is more about what we feel about what we’ve lost and how we cope after we lose them.

The focus of “The Shrouds” is less about the mystery of who destroyed Karsh’s graves as much as it is about grief and its interconnected web of sadness. The best thing about most Cronenberg films is when everything can come off cold and detached, there is still strong emotion beneath the surface. Cassel’s performance as Karsh is an admirable tightrope – as he fits right in within the dry humor and harsh detachment of Cronenberg’s world, we see a man that’s barely keeping himself together. On a blind date (set up by his dentist that gives him the aforementioned quote in regards to his teeth), he goes into a monologue about having a visceral reaction to his wife being put in the ground (part of the inspiration behind his disturbing grave technology). He even goes as far as to show his blind date his wife’s rotting corpse via his technology – it’s an unsettling, darkly funny scene that exemplifies how much Karsh compartmentalizes his loss. He regards his wife’s decaying corpse as something physical while ignoring the metaphysical. In between solving the mystery of the destruction, we see visions (or dreams?) of Karsh laying in bed naked with his wife, conversing with her and watching, segment by segment, as the cancer brings more and more damage to her body. It’s a depressing progression but one that is needed for a visceral story such as this. Diane Kruger, also displaying strong emotion here, takes on triple duty as Karsh’s departed wife Becca, her paranoid twin sister Terry and being the voice of Karsh’s creepy 3D AI assistant Hunny. Kruger has great chemistry with Cassel, they make for an entertaining and sexy pair when they are on screen together. Guy Pierce, coming off his fantastic supporting turn in The Brutalist, is no less fantastic here in the role of Maury. Maury, the ex-husband of Terry, is a neurotic hacker that guides Karsh in solving the mystery of the destroyed corpses. He delivers Cronenberg’s dry humor with an excellent deadpan demeanor and steals the screen every time he’s on.

Cronenberg has described “The Shrouds as being “personal” and “autobiographical”. This can be seen even with Cassel’s costume design as Karsh – he rocks a silver haired doo that makes him visually akin to Cronenberg. Cronenberg expertly sticks to his emotionally detached atmosphere and tone throughout, making almost everything mechanic (in a big subtext type of way, rather than in a literal sense). Sex scenes are detached as well as the dialogue but that’s not to say the emotion is totally lost, it’s just skewed. While being a provocative and thought-provoking ride, Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” is not a film that is palatable to everyone. Even when the film solves its mystery (or presumes to solve it) it’s a bit of a waste and comes off pointless. One could argue that the film could soar off its exploration of grief and technology without an irrelevant mystery plot hovering over it all. While not leaving affairs in a head-scratching or pointless place, the film ends where it begins – with an unsettling image that drives home the point that, unlike humans and everything else in the world, grief never really dies – sometimes it can evolve.

Closing Thoughts
A challenging, provocative entry in the body horror genre, “The Shrouds” is par the course for Cronenberg. Vincent Cassel carries a great lead performance alongside Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. All three performers are up for the challenge of delivering unique character work within Cronenberg’s interconnected web of paranoia and grief. Strong thought-provoking themes aside however, “The Shrouds” can be a bit tedious and fruitless for those looking for a film with an engaging plot.

Trailer