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David Cronenberg is a director who built his career on the off-putting subgenre of body horror. Films like Videodrome and The Fly have become classics despite making audiences squirm in their seats. Crimes Of The Future is Cronenberg’s return to body horror after a decades-long absence. Does the hiatus result in a duller edge? Or has Cronenberg’s age made him that much more insightful?
There’s certainly a lot of deeper messaging going on within Crimes Of The Future. But that message isn’t what’s gotten people talking about this movie. People have been talking about this film’s most shocking scenes. Scenes that have made audience members walk out of the theater on multiple occasions.
Terror In Truth
There’s certainly a big shock factor to much of this movie. In classic Cronenberg fashion, many of the shots in the movie are provocatively gross. But that’s far from the purpose of the film. This isn’t a gimmick horror that only wants to disgust the audience like Saw or The Human Centipede. David Cronenberg approaches this movie like an episode of Black Mirror. A terrifying look into a potential future. A future that almost seems too real or too plausible to be fiction at times.
There’s one line from this film that perfectly sums up the idea behind this movie: “Surgery is the new sex”. The movie posits the body as something pointless and thus worthy of consistent mutilation and yet simultaneously the most important thing an individual has. The driving force behind their every action.
So the movie has a lot of fascinating ideas. But its primary flaw falls under trying to do too much and coming up short on time. There are a lot of characters in this movie, and by the end, it feels like several stories are left unresolved. With that said, there’s some fantastic talent among the characters here. Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Don McKellar give some fantastic performances in this movie.
Is there justification in the audience walkouts that made the internet buzz about this movie? Not necessarily. There are certainly some stomach-churning moments in Crimes Of The Future. But nothing so gratuitous as you would think from the headlines. Cronenberg has always ridden the line between the grotesque and the tasteful.
Final Score For Crimes Of The Future
Overall, Crimes Of The Future is certainly a worthwhile watch for any Cronenberg fans out there. For anybody unfamiliar with his work, the movie may leave you somewhat dazed and confused. But that doesn’t mean stay away. There’s still a thought-provoking and horrifically evocative film here worth giving a chance.
The score for Crimes Of The Future: 6 out of 10.