Horror film ‘is one of the weirdest and most grotesque’ | Films | Entertainment

The body horror features Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart in an unspecified future era where everything has been transformed. Human evolution has followed a disturbing trajectory, with the body now capable of strange, accelerated mutations. Critics largely commended the niche production and the cast’s performances, whilst devotees of the dark genre’s renowned director, David Cronenberg, celebrated his return to signature form, despite it offering a characteristically demanding viewing experience.

Saul Tenser (Mortensen) and Caprice (Seydoux) play artists inhabiting a future where physical pain and infectious diseases have been virtually eradicated. This enables most individuals to undergo surgery – which has evolved into a form of sexual pleasure – whilst remaining conscious, and the duo capitalise on this by integrating procedures into their performances.

Saul experiences “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” in the film Crimes of the Future, which triggers new, peculiar organs to spontaneously develop within his body. Caprice extracts them before a live audience as part of their act.

The affliction leaves him with persistent respiratory and digestive complications, requiring him to depend on various devices to assist with eating and sleeping. The duo encounter the National Organ Registry, an organisation documenting and preserving newly cultivated organs in a bid to control human evolution whilst concealing it from the public.

A nervous bureaucrat named Timlin (Stewart) becomes especially fascinated by Saul. He also joins an underground collective of radical evolutionists who maintain that humans can modify their bodies to digest synthetic materials in response to environmental contamination.

The film’s 2022 premiere signalled its director’s comeback to science fiction and horror for the first time since 1999, and it received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, where it boasts a highly respectable 80% approval rating, one reviewer celebrated its distinctiveness.

“The most original film I’ve seen in well over a decade, one with important questions to ask about bioethics,” they wrote.

Another was captivated by the raw and powerful performances. “This is one of the weirdest and most grotesque movies I have ever watched. The atmosphere of the film was grim and disturbing, and it was beautifully brought to life by the cast’s diversely unsettling performances,” they raved.

“This movie was great, but don’t watch it before eating or going to sleep. I definitely recommend it for horror and sci-fi fans!”

A cinema enthusiast also cautioned about the potential impact of the film. “A worthwhile movie that is sure to make you feel uncomfortable on a variety of levels. Whilst it’s not as universally relatable as the performance given by Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, it’s very close to it,” they remarked.

Crimes of the Future is currently streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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