Having built a long and acclaimed career out of films that mutilate, blow up, lust over, and generally poke about with the human body, David Cronenberg takes a more reflective approach with his latest, The Shrouds.
In a story influenced by the death of the writer-director’s wife back in 2017, Vincent Cassel stars as Karsh, a man with a Cronenberg-esque swoosh of grey hair and well-fitted black suit, who is struggling five years on from his own wife’s passing. Karsh’s company GraveTech allows wealthy clients to watch a live feed of their deceased loved ones as their body decays. It’s a way of staying close to them after death – a way of not letting go.
The film’s contemplative moments make powerful use of this strong character hook, with the disturbing necro-voyeurism of the GraveTech devices serving as a gnarly way of exploring lasting grief. It’s the next step on from the “surgery is the new sex” theme of Cronenberg’s previous film Crimes of the Future, and an opportunity for him to deconstruct his own career’s obsession with human bodies.
But that’s a character and a theme, not a story, and Cronenberg seems to have realised this early on in the writing process. All of this meaty stuff is buried beneath a conspiracy plot, in which the GraveTech cemetery is vandalised at the same time their system is subjected to a cyber-attack. Karsh hires his techy brother-in-law (a dishevelled Guy Pearce) to investigate, and together they discover a scheme from Russian (or perhaps Chinese) hackers to nick customer data.
And that’s where the movie falls apart, because the conspiracy plot is boring, low in stakes, convoluted, and, at one point, borderline racist. Whenever things start to get interesting, the movie throws in another obscure swerve. There are twists upon twists, and none of them go anywhere satisfying.
But The Shrouds is worth a watch for the more characterful scenes when it’s not overburdened by plot. Diane Kruger plays an excellent triple role as Karsh’s sister-in-law, his AI assistant, and – in flashbacks, or perhaps visions – his late wife herself, Becca.
These scenes with Kruger as Becca, not dead yet but already deteriorating, are where the film works most on an emotional level; in one particularly harrowing scene, Karsh attempts to cuddle Becca despite her weakening bones being fragile. It feels straight from Cronenberg’s heart. We’re just not sure where the rest of the film came from.
THE SHROUDS is out now in UK cinemas.
